The Feilding Star. TUESDAY, JUNE 12, 1888. The Lash for Arson

Feilding Star, Volume IX, Issue 134, 12 June 1888, Page 2

The Feilding Star. TUESDAY, JUNE 12, 1888. The Lash for Arson

Notwithstanding all our boasted civilisation and refinement there is still a latent element of savagery in our natures which is only too easily excited into cruel activity. An instauce of thi& appeared in the Wellington Chamber of Commerce on Friday last, when a member gravely said (vide the ; N.Z. Times) "he felt assured that if the judges were given the power to order corporal punishment when a prisoner was convicted of arson, that it would have a deterrent effect. He therefore moved that, in the opinion of this Chamber, power should be given to the judges in New Zealand to inflict corporal punishment in cases of arson." This astounding motion actually found a seconder. One member very properly said: — "It was the law of the country that corporal punishment should only be inflicted in cases of offences against the person, and he scarcely thought it would be altered. He suggested that the motion should not be pressed," and ultimately this suggestion was adopted, and the motion withdrawn.

Now, had the Chamber of Commerce been fired with the same spirit at that particular moment as the mover of the motion, they might have gone a step further, and proposed that as witnesses in cases of arson were invariably contumacious, they should be aided in giving their testimony by reverting to the use of the thumbscrews and boots, which proved so efficacious in the good old times, in such cases. A turu of the screw, or a blow on the head of the wedge were far more expeditiouff modes of eliciting facts than the present system which compels lengthy and vexatious crossexaminations. Flogging at the tail of a cart was also a popular punishment in the good old times, and no doubt, in the opinion of some members of the Chamber of Commerce, it would be a cheerful and elevating thing for the young people of Wellington to see a respectable fellow citizen walking behind a dray receiving " corporal punishment" for preparing for a " b&& fourth" by burning down his premises. This is no exaggeration, for the Chamber was told " there was much reason to fear that men in good positions, and apparently honest before the world were guilty in this respect." But the climax is to be found in the following article from the pen of the editor of the New Zealand Times :— " We are glad to ccc that Mr D. T. Stuart moved a resolution in the Chamber of Commerce in favor of legislation making the punishment of the lash applicable to persons guilty of the heinous and most dangerous crime of arson. We entirely agree with the views he expressed, and only regret that they were not endorsed by the Chamber." We entirely disagree with the views of the gentleman, and congratulate the Chamber of Commerce on the good sense they showed by refusing to endorse them. Flogging has been abolished in the army and navry, and in the Civil Criminal Law is only retained to punish a certain class of crimes committed by ruffians lost to all moral feelings. ''Men who are guilty of arson are undoubtedly great and dangerous offenders, but notwithstanding their crimes they should not be .degraded lower than the beasts that perish.