RESIDENT MAGISTRATE'S COURT.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume IX, Issue 62, 13 March 1874, Page 2

RESIDENT MAGISTRATE'S COURT.

;'■ y [Before LV Broad, Esq v R.M.] * •■// ,^*|^ pA??/ . - On the remanded case against Elizabeth Wardrope for having no * visible means of support beiug called, his Worship delivered tbe following judgment s— l have corae to the conclusion that prostitutes arc not idle and disorderly persons within the meaning of this sectiou, and that I ought not therefore to convict the defendant. The law has not declared such a mode of life unlawful, and I am inclined to \ think it has tacitly acknowledged the existeuce of nn incurable evil by providing menns to keep it in ss decent bounds as possible. For instance, prostitutes misconducting themselves in public places may be fined and imprisoned, and. occupiers of placeß of public resort permitting these women to assemble in their premises may be punished. Keepers of houeea of ill-fame may also be indicted; but I do not know of any law which makes a prostitute, as euch, a criminal. This " Vagrant Act," under which the information is laid contains some of the provisions alluded to for the regulating as it were, the conduct of these unfortunates, and if it had been intended to include them under the category of *■ idle and disorderly persons," I think the Act would have eaid so in express terms. To convict the defend nut under this section would then, I think, be exercising a power the Legislature never intended to give Magistrates. For my part I should like to see heavy penalties imposed upon persons who notoriously and deliberately let houses to this class of women. I cannot help thinking ioo tbat they might be confined to special parts of the town or neighborhood, and be under constant surveillance. It is only by some such regulations I think that we can hope to save respectable people from gross annoyance, and prevent a serious depreciation in the value of property contiguous to houses occupied by tbese persons.