IN AND OUT

NZ Truth, Issue 1143, 27 October 1927, Page 4

IN AND OUT

Solving A Very Old

Problem

At last someone has gioen utterance to an idea that may lead to a tangible reform. Magistrate F. K. Hunt. Auckland, hat made the suggestion thai half of Roto Roa Island might be segregated to accommodate the country's "derelicts and vagabonds" . THE proposal comes from a true sense of humane justice and Is given impetus by the fact that Major Haines, Officer-in-Charge of the Salvation Army Prison Gate Home, Addington, and late manager of Roto Roa Island (6% years), has voiced his support m the matter. Under the present statute, the charge of being "idle and disorderly with insufficient lawful means of support," closes the prison gates upon a large number of unfortunate people — mostly elderly men — who have neither employment nor friends. With great ease and unconcern the police pick these so-called "vagabonds" from eoery city. This has to be done m compliance with the laws that forbid begging and idleness. To anyone not totally impassive to sympathy for his fellow- creature, it is next to heart-rending to see a silverhaired veteran of toil gulp down, his feelings of injustice when a sentence of imprisonment follows the police statement — "He knows he must work to keep out of prison." It does not savor of humanity and civilisation to see these drifts of illfortune's tide being led back to the grey cloisters they. know so well. "N.Z. Truth" holds no brief for the younger type of "vag." whose laziness or iniquity brings him well within the category of crime. There is a class of "idle and disorderly" that embraces a number of men well on m years, and who, through bad luck, f riendlessness, or failing health and strength, cannot lay hand on loaf nor head on couch. Most of these men — despite their "lists," which are often of no consequence — have taken their turn the Dominion's wheel of progress, no matter how humble their past calling and efforts. Let our cells be reserved for those whose blood flows with a criminal taint, and not be a "dump" for the waning days of elderly victims of crumpled circumstances and blighted hopes. "Truth" endorses Magistrate Hunt's appeal on behalf of our battalions of venerable "deadbeats," and may their place on the Island take the form of a horne — not a prison, with sympathetic care and attention — not punitive and rigorous rule.