MR. JUSTICE JOHNSTON ON EDUCATION AND CRIME.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume VI, Issue 211, 6 September 1871, Page 2

MR. JUSTICE JOHNSTON ON EDUCATION AND CRIME.

Mr. Justice Johnston, in charging the" Grand Jury at Wellington,, on T Monday last,, said that it ~as not bis "purpose on that occasiou to make many general remarks, but. some, interesting, questions had. recently; arisen , both at J home *.__nd; abroad, on which he thought it nece-saVy^ to offer some.^emaTks/; j That of education was to his mind the most important- that was left to modern^ society^' to- 'grapple^ with. He might say; inhisi position, that ,it was the lastr;i;n -whiphj^ j?hpul& Q#_»s'_. any opinion, of - even- - a quasi-political-character, but he offered suggostJKPPPI having-- a bearing .on ./the > regression and the prevention of crime in connection witheducation. .It was generally agreed, on /all, . hands that edticaUqi^* r .ffiF/ dw e U{B»a& effective! means for preventing j crime, but bie questioned v w_ietn6V^ mere intellectual training-^mere cultivation trr-would a r ffood A aie in'titaated that,' ifi-^is^opiiiionf rfeliglous and moral traic-fn^i wer^-^absolutely needed to make! good members of society, that secular education only would never have the effect, and that any system of educa-

tion based on^this priaciple woald fail in the objects sought, ami in coming to this -^ondus|bn neyvas guided; by .^he observation and experience of many years. Another matter that had recently arisen was the -necessity there -waß for .tpaking^ .-.immediate provision for disciarg&d 1 The law in t bis., respect .was. . most uniatiufactory. In neighboring. Colonies acts had; been passed for preventing periocr convicted of crime in other places from landing there. After bein? for some time disallowed, they were permited to pass ; and this Colony -then- passed a similar measure to keep out .the refuse of the Colonies. It naturally occurred, to those who reflected on the subject what was to become of the wretched individuals, if each Colony acted in this manner, ;:an<l thereby fixed ' discharged prisoners as permanent hardens ,on the^Colony in which they "might be, for that was what such .;ael.fTprotection; would bring about. He drew attention to the subject as to what they .should do with their discharged criminals, in order that the Legislature might take some action on the matter; and provide -some means of redemption, rather than send them where they .were liable to arrest and penalties. If they -could only earn their bread by recourse to crime, they must have recourse to it..-.'.:- He referred to the necessity for providing work for this class to prevent them just after being discharged from haying necessarily to relapse into crime in the absence of being able to earn the necessaries of life by a fair amount of labor. It was most important that provision^ the kind should be made, for he found that after a second conviction there was but little chance of reformation, and prisoners afterwards were .permaneut criminals. No doubt reformatories for the young, and '& general sytem, such as he had indicated, would do much; but, to use an old Saxon phrase, they must keep their powder dry by also: organising' an^ harmonious system of police throughout the Colony, and the gradual development of penal establishment. Referring to the rising generation, he regretted that parents did not exercise greater control over their children than was at present the case, and that a dangerous element was growing up in this. as in. other colonies, a disposition on the part of the young, when not properly restrained by their parents, to indulge in wanton, wilful, quasi-criminal practical jokes that were committed by unprincipled youths. He feared that the humbler classes who were so much better off here than at home, scarcely comprehended their duty as parents, and did not understand their responsibilities. It wm with deep regret that he stated such facts from his past experience, and he thought . that it was -necessary to make parents more responsiI ble for the acts of their children than had I hitherto been the case.. ...