EDITORIAL NOTES AND COMMENTS.

Oamaru Mail, Volume XXXVI, Issue 10064, 4 February 1909, Page 1

EDITORIAL NOTES AND COMMENTS.

It is a pity that the stipendiary magistrate did not hear drunkenness an the case against the excuse for chute. youth John Bain,

who was charged with having tampered with the brake on one of the carriages of a train so as to cause considerable delay in the despatch of the train. The Justices of the Peace who heard the charge inflicted a penalty of 10s on accused, with costs which were 7s. Mr Crisp, a lawyer, appeared for the defence, and Inspector O'Brien prosecuted. We do not impugn this well-known, able,' and reliable police officer's ability, but it is most important that, in connection with any charge so serious, the Crown Prosecutor should be requisitioned. As it was, Mr Crisp was smart and made points that would have probably been successfully answered by one of his own profession, j but which, in the absence of the Crown ; Prosecutor and the Stipendiary Magistrate, passed unnoticed. Counsel asked: "Even if accused did, in a half-drunken condition, turn on the brake, where was the seriousness of the position and danger to life, as the train was standing still. Certainly the Westinghouse brake was turned off, and in that lay danger, but it was not suggested that accused had done that." Then there was the man who came up and said: "'I am the man, arrest me." This man was also "slightly drunk." Bain professed that when he was caught, he was trying to rectify the harm done by the other drunken individual. The Court concluded, however, that Bain was guilty, and punished him as we have stated, probably shewing nierc-y because he was partly drunk and young. If Bain's deed was not due to a naturally vicious nature that is fortunate for Bain as well as the community. But, if an individual commits a crime because he is drunk that, is no palliation of the act. Somebody is responsible for having given Bain the liquor which threw his moral rectitude off the balance, aroused within him the demon of mischief, and made him a menace to the public safety. Where did Bain get the drink which made him drunk, and should he. when in his cups, be treated as a b.nng whose transgressions are almost pardonable? When drunkenness, wantonly indulged in, induces the victim to commit a crime, it constitutes a second crime. Bain, at- his age, can scarcely be classed | as a confirmed and helpless inebriate. ; His indulgence in liquor was therefore not likely to have been due to a chronic- i ally degraded appetite. It was probably occasioned by that perverted sense of what constitutes a true man which looms large in the young colonial and which, if not effectually checked, leads to the development of men who are not onlv a nuisance, but also a constant danger to society and a burden to the State. No one who has studied the modern methods of dealing with youthful offenders would wish to wreak vengeance on them by placing them in prison, where they become more and more polluted, but the guardians of the law should keep a watchful eye and a firm hold on those who signalise thenyouthful career by a transgression such as that Bain committed., and should not adopt an attitude which savors of carelessness. Bain was either guilty, or he was innocent. The Court concluded that he perpetrated the deed attributed to him, though he denied it and accused the other drunken individual who voluntarily stated to the police that it was he who committed the offence, not Bain. The second individual should have been captured and examined in the witness box : but he was not; and as Bain was adjudged to be guilty he should have been subjected to treatment somewhat commensurate with the act- which he was deemed to have committed and which might have ended in serious public disaster. His advocate hfiisircd that he would he treated considerately. as he was only a youth, had no money, and was going to Oamaru to harvest. Those who soond their earnings in drink are never likely to have money. It may appear to be humane to deal lightly . with such a subje-ct as Bain, but it would have been more so to treat him So that he would be brought to understand the heinousness of his offence and endeavor to avoid the pitfall which led him into it.

I On: subsr ription-list for the helpless. starving women and i ?.ioTifKH, oivK children in the Mother i mk a rnxr:!" Country is f growing apace. We have now ; £7O. and we propose to ask the Prime i Minister to cable the money as a contribution from Oamaru and district, when it reaches £IOO. There should be no diffii culty in realising this sum, as but a tithe of the people of North Otago have, as yet, sent in their donations. > Our collection of aid for the million and a-half of faminesmitten fellow-creatures in the (and whence we sprang—for dear children with pinched faces, and mothers in the grip of hopeless despair—for those whose only offence is that they are poor and in dire distress—has been attended bv incidents which kindle within one hope for the human race. A modest man who apparently came from the country asked us if the extracts from letters received from Home, and recently published by us, could be relied upon, and, though we could not, of course, vouch for their accuracy, he did not exact such an assurance, but, with . expressions of keen solicitude for the sufferers, handed us £25. When we asked what name we should append to the donation, he appropriately said, "Inasmuch." Ah. that's the word. It conjures up a Divine utterance which imports the essence of Christianity: "Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of. the least of these My brethren, ye have done it unto Me." There is no injunction ,t-o wait till others who are on the spot and who are better, able to help to do their duty. That which is left to others to do is never done. Besides, it is a blessed privilege to render aid to the suffering so long as one lias a loaf.