SOCIAL SCIENCE CONGRESS AT ABERDEEN.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXII, Issue 5197, 17 November 1877, Page 3

SOCIAL SCIENCE CONGRESS AT ABERDEEN.

: ' j ;i.i i .mm <• ‘ ' >, /■ On the 19th September! the' twenty-first; meeting of this congress was opened af Aberdeen, the liarl of Aberdeen delivering the in- ! augural address before a very large audience. Hil lordship devoted considerable time to the question of (“reformation through industry,”: arguing that in bur prisons . more labor should be enforced, not as an aggravation of punishment, but as a means of training for subsequent employment. Although some persons might be temporarily injured by the removal of restrictions on prison labor, the effect of a free market would in the end be to produce less pressure on particular trades. He thought it had become apparent that short sentences were not deterrent. ■ Both for society and the individual it would be be better if the repetition of offences was understood to render the convict liable to the maximum penalties. Reforms on similar principles were wanted in workhouses, where the idle were still too often allowed to be a burden on the rates. They wanted less pity for the reckless, and more hr . the aged and unfortunate. His lordship also touched on the necessity of improved dwellings, pointing out the necessity ■ for joint effort on the part of landlord, tenant, and laborer. A vote of thanks was passed to his lordship for his address.