CRIME AND PUNISHMENT. The Discriminating Law.

Free Lance, Volume V, Issue 214, 6 August 1904, Page 6

CRIME AND PUNISHMENT. The Discriminating Law.

CHARLES Frederick Smith has gone to gaol for seven ycais, and those \Uio read the paiticulais of his violent assault against a Wellington young lady, and lobbeiy fiom her, will concede that the luffian is well-served The lady was badly bruised, and she was a fullgi own woman, and a plucky one also At very frequent intervals m the colony tender little children are badly bruised too Some have been burnt with lighted ti-tree, some have been tin ashed with pokers, stiaps, and things, and some have been tied to fences But, these are only children, bless you, and their dear, good, kind parents or guardians were only "coirectmg" them * ¥■ * Some of the parents get a month's gaol, and some of them get three, four, or six months None of them get seven years, because none of them steal rings and other things from the children, the children not being possessed of any such things In our opinion, the parent who deliberately, persistently, and without any reason cruelly ill-uses his or her child is just as great a criminal as Charles Frederick Smith, and earns seven years' "hard" just as surely * * *• The attacks on children by parents are, m our opinion, deserving of greater punishment than those upon adult persons, merely because children are defenceless. Cowardly parents are possibly only deterred from committing crimes against adults merely because of cowardice. In many of the cases of this kind in New Zealand during the past three years, it has been proved that cruelty was haDitual, and not merely the result of sudden temper Remember that men have gone to gaol for seven years for stealing, and others have been fined 5s and costs for vile cruelty to animals, and sent to gaol for a merely nominal period for halfkillmg children * * * It may be good law, and it may be fair We can't see it, however, and we should be very proud indeed of the magistrate who refused to deal with the next child-cruelty case, and sent it to the judge, and prouder still of the judge who ruled that repeat^ ed cruel assaults on defenceless children were as worthy of seven years' "hard" as one assault with robbery and violence against an adult person. It is surprising that a magistrate should conclude that a person has been guilty of "deliberate cruelty," and send him to gaol for a month It merely gives him a month to allow his evil passions to boil to white heat for the performance of another act of the same sort * * * Some day, perhaps, the punishment meted out to criminals will possibly be made to fit the crime, but it is only necessary to glance casually at court cases generally to see that the disparity of sentences is frequently absolutely farcical. When the person is considered more sacred than his property, perhaps the law will be less of an ass, but often its. admmis-

tiation in New Zealand, as elsewheic, shows the presence of the long eais