The Chronicle. PUBLISHED DAILY LEVIN. SATURDAY, DECEMBER 28, 1912 JUSTICE AND CRIMINALS.

Horowhenua Chronicle, 28 December 1912, Page 2

The Chronicle. PUBLISHED DAILY LEVIN. SATURDAY, DECEMBER 28, 1912 JUSTICE AND CRIMINALS.

Justice to-day, ..when it sentences wrongdoers, to imprisonment, does not send them into durance merely as punishment. Punishment was the one idea behind such sentences for many hundreds of years, and the comparative ineffectiveness of judiciary vindictiveness is clearly apparent tq-day when comparisons are made between the old-time statistics of criminals and the figures of to-day. Some unprejudiced observers have given their opinions that the quality of mercy is even too pronounced today, and it must bo said in some respects tlicir criticism seems well founded. t None the less, present methods are greatly preferable to the old ones, for undoubtedly tlicy rest-ore to the communitites, as rehabilitated citizens, men who would have sunk lower and lower under the minatory processes of tlio past. As an illustration of the changed attitude of officialdom towards its prisons, a recent article in the Sydney Daily Telegraph is well worthy of reproduction. The article is as fol low:— I cannot tell how the truth may be, I say the tale as 'twas said to me. The above (states the Sydney Daily Telegraph) is the motto of the SydL. ney gaol newspaper, the Compendium, the first issue of which is now ready, and will be distributed among prisoners in the gaols of the State before Christmac. The journal has been printed on paper of a distinctive colour, green, in order, the Minister of Justice has explained, that it may not be confused with any other paper which might poshibly be smuggled into a- prisoner's possession. It consists chiefly of news Items relating to current ovents of importance clipped from daily and weekly newspapers. The one . subject that is not dealt with is politics, and the source of all the items quoted is given. The Minister for Justice, in an official memorandum, states that the paper is the outcome of a suggestion by the council of the Prisoners' Aid Association. He himself has written the first leader, which states, inter alia:—"Efforts will bo made through tho agency of the Compendium to make it easier for the man who leaves prison to so live that he need not fear a return. Information will be given each month as to the demands for labour in various parts of the country, with particular reference to localities where harvesting operations, shearing, and railways works are going on, so that any reader whose sentence expires, and who wants to go in for honest toil, will know in which direction inducements are offering. An attempt will also bo made to convey to all readers a general idea of the world's progress, so that a man leaving prison will not have, in addition to other difficulties, that of attempting to conceal his ignorance concerning events well known to everyone else, or having to account for it by admitting to a past which it is well for both him and the community should be as far as possible forgotten." Tho paper includes ' 6oino poetical features, the authors including Henry Kendall, Algernon Charles Swinburne, Robert Burns, and Thomas Moore. I