The Opunake Times. Friday, September 28, 1894. JUVENILE IMMORALITY.

Opunake Times, Volume I, Issue 26, 28 September 1894, Page 2

The Opunake Times. Friday, September 28, 1894. JUVENILE IMMORALITY.

In a recent case heard at Naper, Mr Justice Richmond made the following remarks concerning the young people of the community : —“ The more serious charges a - e those against a prisoner of defiling female children—'some under the age of 12 years, and so over 12 but under 14 years. Gentlemen, if I am to speak the truth ns i’ • osents itself to me after reading the o coitions in these cases, there is a perfectly awful state of things disclosed — a slate of moral rottenness which words are inadequate to express. The evidence discloses a moral disease of the deepest nainre, and of the utmost malignity. I am not going to attempt, here and now, to fathom

the cauaes of such an awful condition of things among us. lam nrt going to say that the churches are to blame, that the State is to blame, that the. schools are to blame, or that the parents and'homes are to blame. I am not going to pretend to decide whether the evil among us is of our. own making wholly, or in a large part inherited from other times and other countries. But the err is amongst us, and it is impossible, it seems to me, for eny map of proper feelings to fal to see that if this evil remains the country must be on the road downwr rds. It matters not what our pr .s erity in material matters may bo. We may flourish materially; our revenue may flourishour stocks may reach a higher price in the Lonmarkets; our grain, dab-y produce, and wool mey all rise in price and enrich us ; but we are still on the way downwards, unless we can cure the evil. As I ha*e yet an opportunity of speaking niy mind in a general way to the leading inhabitants of _ this, place, I. cannot refrain frem saying what I feel on this occasion with reference to this great evil. It is not my office to point out where and how th’s evil arose, but it is within my functions to say that it exists. To have female chastity corrupted at its very source, sit ikes at toe root of the prosperity of the country. You will bear in mind, gentlemen, that I have not said the charges were true. If these charges are false, they yet furnish evidence of juvenile depravity and immorality that can only be described as dreadful. Be they true or false, the depositions disclose a state of things among our young people truly awful. I wou d gladly be able to believe that the ev.ls disclosed are exceptional, but I am afraid they are Pot, judging from what I have seen and heard elsewhere.” One, Very fruitful source of the state of affairs to which his Honor referred, i i our opinion, is allowing children to frequent the public street:; and other places, outside parental control, after nightfall. It is quite a common th ag to find groups of childreu, boys and; girls, roaming the streets for several •hours after dark in almost every town in New Zealand, the language and conversation indulged ?n by them being sufficient to make one’s ha.r stand on end. With such a training for girls in infancy, what can be expected from them when they attain maturity ?