New Zealand Times (PUBLISHED DAILY.) TUESDAY, APRIL 3, 1877.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXII, Issue 5000, 3 April 1877, Page 2

New Zealand Times (PUBLISHED DAILY.) TUESDAY, APRIL 3, 1877.

As a general rule the old adage will hold good, that if you fill a man’s pocket and Ills stomach crime will be absent from his heart. Tho lightness of the calendar of prisoners for trial at this sittings of the Wellington Circuit Court (published in our issue of Monday) leads, .therefore, to the very satisfactory conclusion that the great bulk of the people, and those especially who would in the old country be termed by political economists the “ dangerous classes,” are hero, for the most part at all events, earning good wages and are well fed. The population of this city alone is estimated at about sixteen thousand souls, and the proportion of adult males is large. Many of them are new arrivals, and necessarily without colonial experience. Yet tho great majority, if not all of them, appear to be rapidly absorbed, and to be doing well. Were it otherwise, we may be sure that serious offences against the law would bo more numerous amongst us. We observe also that on this occasion there is an entire absence from the calendar of a class of offences which at one time appeared comparatively, prevalent in the colonyassaults upon women and children. This is also a very satisfactory feature, and it goes to'support "the proposition that the punishment of the lash for the worst sort of these cases has had a good effect. Efforts have been made in Eng-, land to provide a similar punishment for. these crimes but we believe we are correct in saying that so far the Legislature has not thought "fit to extend it to offences against the person,.except in the case of : garroters. If flogging be a proper pun-; 1 ishment in the one case, we should think !it would be in the other. Without going into a long dissertation on the merits of i this mode of punishment, we may refer i to the fact that in New Zealand its iuflic!tion has had a salutary effect in lessening the number of cases of a kind which at iorie time;;,threatened to be a rather proiminerit ‘subject of. comment for local ! writers,,on (criminalities. Englandrhas, i taken a hint from the colonies before to--day in matters of legislation, notablyas; !to Parliamentary elections by ballot, and ! the 'registration of land titles. s It may" j be- that she will amend her criminallaw i after the colonial, model,, in . the matter 1 referred to, arid will .find the ,experimerit; r - , i It is certainly a matter for congratulai tion to all, except perhaps some of the | lawyers, that the criminal business is so light both in this district and generally throughout the colony, and for them there is the consolation that if the criininal lists, are scanty, the civil cases—in one part of. the "country at [any rate —promise a rich ; harvest to the profession. In every community, there will of , course;be some proportion of crime," and often a particular • class of offence will be the prominent one. i Where there is so little crime as there is , here, one can hardly say that,any offence , iis prevalent ; but it does appear as if [there was a tendency to increase in one direction,, viz., forgery. This"is felony so [easily committed that it is likely to be • often resorted to anywhere ; but if people would be more careful in cashing cheques ; than they, are,., there would be leas temp-, tatidn to perpetrate this kind of fraud. If it be true that in many instances pp'r portnnity alone induces crime, the facilities offered by the readiness with which 'some people will cash money orders are [direct incentiyes to vice. It .speaks..well ifor.the I general.'honesty of the CQrrirnupity [that people , dp-trust each other spUirijplicitly’ \ but;it "does, as it appears, to us, [afford opportunities to rogues, who would [have grpat difficulty, were other tactics, [adopted, in[ carrying Put" their nefarious schemes.. If these spurious cheques could not be cashed, they would soonicease to ;he drawn, and cases of forgery "would of necessity becomo almost unknown;■: