THE PROBLEM OF THE VAGRANT

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 681, 5 June 1929, Page 8

THE PROBLEM OF THE VAGRANT

PROVISION for what may be known as “the vagrant class” was suggested by the Prime Minister in his address to Auckland citizens last evening, and without doubt this is a proposal that commends itself to all thoughtful people. Unfortunately, the enunciation of a theoretical remedy for those pathetic cases which appear before the courts of the land with such depressing regularity is only the beginning of a problem in which considerations of temperament and habit, as they affect the subjects, are the principal harriers to easy settlement. Every frequenter of the lower courts knows what the term “vagrant” implies. At regular intervals male or female vagrants are sent to prison for a month or two because there is nowhere else to send them.

For the respectable old citizens whose disability is merely penury, accommodation may be found in existing homes. It must therefore be assumed that Sir Joseph’s reference embraces only the vagrant class referred to. The word itself conveys an unjust stigma. In truth, a number of those it covers are placed by the mere method of their existence near the border-line of criminality. Liquor and loose living- are often responsible for their position. Without money, yet inured to the privations a state of homelessness and destitution involves, they make parks or primitive shelters their quarters. Yet, even those who practise this mode of living with the most rigid honesty can still be hailed ignominiously before a magistrate. Magistrates, at present, with no option but to send such unfortunates to gaol, frequently deplore the absence of some border-line institution to which they can be sent without any implication of harshness. ’ The suggestion that Sir Joseph endorsed—the proposal that some island in the Hauraki Gulf should be made a refuge—has been made in the Auckland courts. Sent to such an institution, the victims of misfortune would enjoy greater comfort in a less oppressive atmosphere than obtains at Mount Eden Gaol, but the responsibility of the State would not end there. The charitable movement could not be permitted to stop half way, and measures would have to be taken to prevent these persons, if possible, from resuming their irresponsible existence as soon as they were released. Unless this is done, the vagrant class will continue to be what it is now—a perpetual charge upon the State. But. in the. altered circumstances the cost would be much more.