Comments by Judge Edwards.

Gisborne Times, Volume V, Issue 38, 14 February 1901, Page 2

Comments by Judge Edwards.

THE NATIVE BORN.

Per Press Association. —Copyright,

Christchurch, last night.

In sentencing the young man at the Supreme Court to-day for damaging a Fcrris-wheel, Judge Edwards expressed sorrow that the man was a native of the colony. Continuing, he said he believed that some ingenious gentleman not wholly unconnected with the press had published articles dealing with the records of this colony as compared with those of the Old Country. His Honor, however, did not know that the writer had shown that there was a difference in the conditions of life in this colony. A person who was honestly inclined, and who displayed an ordinary amount of industry, was not under the slightest temptation to become a.criminal. In countries like England, and especially in a great metropolis like London, people were born into criminality, and were bred in it, and they had no resources but criminal ones. Persons who were bom in New Zealand came from parents who had had sufficient enterprise to come out to the colony, where they made homes and led respectable lives. The natives of New Zealand also had all tlie advantages of a healthy bringing up and a magnificent climate. If under such circumstances large numbers of them became criminals, as he had said before and as lie said again, it was a lamentable fact, and was an evil for which philanthropists might well seek a cause.