The Daily News MONDAY, JANUARY 8. INDETERMINATE SENTENCE

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XLVII, Issue 8022, 8 January 1906, Page 2

The Daily News MONDAY, JANUARY 8. INDETERMINATE SENTENCE

RETIRING POLITICIANS.

New Zealand generally gives Australia the lead in experimental social legislation, mid the New Zeakuder, consequently, feels pretty much as if he'd been beaten at football, or something equally serious, when Australia gets ahead of him, and puts a measure on the Statute Book whilst he has baen thinking about it. An Australian judge, by-the aid of a recently enacted law, decided that a prisoner before him was an lmbitua] criminal, and has given him an indeterminate sentence; that is to say, the criminal will be a " lifer " should the authorities feel that his release would be a menace to society. Judges in New Zealand have of late years been practically helpless in dealing with certain classes of habitual offenders, chiefly because the law provides a maximum penalty for a given DlTeme, at the end of which, in nowise cMiii.il of his evil bout, the criiniriiil is let li>os«s on society, to be « im-jiaf* tD nil and .m ovil example' to less "gitlud" associates. We say " gifted " because a habitual criminal is as proud of his skill as a surgeon is of his stock of picklod appendices, or t.lm lawyer of his briefs in " causa eolebres."

Thekh have been innumerable New Zenhnd ewes where the law's inability to impose an indeterminate sentence has given criminals practically " carte blanche" to go and sin once more. Sexual maniacs, whom th* greatest authorities, Lombroso in eluded, regard as absolutely irresponsible, are not permanently detained. Had it been so, Ellis, who was hanged for the murder of Collinson at Te Awnite, would never have had the liberty necessary to gratify his desire for a man's life. Only thisother day a jfulge at Wellington sentenced a mail to a term of years for a series of burglaries of which any criminal might havo been proud, seaing, as we have stated, that a habitual criminal is absolutely incapable of resisting the temptation to add to his crimes and to glory in them. The judge remarked that the man had been in gaol repeatedly, and was entitled, in all, to 140 years' imprisonment! • # * *

Clever criminals are always the best behaved men in gaol. It is the msre brutes (whose environment has boon their undoing) who are troublesome. And a "top-notcher" -a calling which is evidently recognised in law as a sort of necessary *yil —always gets his sentence much reduced by good conduct, A man cannot "be morally improved by a course of gaol, and he emerges with a series of matured plans which makes him a greater menace than he has ever been before. Crime is a disease. A man may possess the germ of it, and it will expand under the fertilising influence of opportunity. A stronger fertiliser than opportunity is gaol—and subsequent release from gaol doesn't physically scare a criminal. It may be argued that a clever criminal once he has been successful is incorrigible. He serves one, two, three, or four and each time he is pleaded t>> mike up for the lost i ime.

Why not giol liiui forever? Beemino it is eniul to him, you say ? Isn't it more cruel to society to him rejoin it to everybody's loss, and to become a bad example to persons unable to resist temptation! In short, if people are morally incapable of running straight by their own efforts, it is the State's duty to keep them somewhere where they will do no harm to society. A criminal is to be pitied just as a mm diseased with consumption is to be pitied. We insist that the consumptive shall not spread his disease. He is practically isolated, in kindness to people who are susceptible ta the dise.ise. If he is cured he is no longer a danger to society, and precisely the s ime is true of the disease of crime. If indeterminate sentences for habitual criminals were the rulo the necessity for capital punishment would be minimised very materially. A man cannot commit murder while in gaol, except under extraordinary or rare circumstances.

It may be that in tho far future we shall regard the criminal with the pity we reserve for the physically diseased, and devise methods of removing the taint as dostors remove a diseased limb. It is an absurdity that in all English countries a person with the drink disease may appear upwards of a hundred times and get " the usual " —a short imprisonment or a fine. The imprisonment is simply a spell, in which the appetite is sharpened, and the fine is a five shilling or ten shilling license to go and get ill again. And the present treatment of habitual criminals is much on the same lines. To impose indeterminate sentences moans that the State is put to a large expense to keep them. But the State scores in the lessening of the evil influence and the protection of the lives and properties of the people.

There is no necessity for people who are never tempted to put on airs, and insist that all shall live up to the standard of blamelessness. It is easy for the isolated to bo chaste, and easier for the tempted to bo other wise. If there is nothing about to steal, you cannot bo .1 thief, and ono cannot burgle much or give way to criminal instinct with a Snider aimed warder around. There are a large number of criminals even in this usually well-behaved country who, when they come before the judges after next session, ought to I have the gentleman with a gun for a life companion.

Among the politicians retiring this year there are some wlio have given many years of service to the country. Mr J. W. Thomson, Olutha, who did not seek re-elestion, was returned for nine Parliaments, and gave his attendance at thirty sessions. Sir W. R. Russell, who wasf defeated at Hawke's Bay, was elected for nine Parliaments, and had attended thirty-two sessions. Mr W. C. Buchanan, who has given place to Mr Hornsby for Wairarapa, had seen seven Parliaments, and served for twenty-five sessions. Mr John Duthie, who was defeated by Ml' Izard for Wellington North, was elected for four Parliaments, and attended twelve sessions; Mr F. W. Lang, who lost the Waikato seat, four Parliaments and thirtoen sessions; Mr A. D. Willis, who was defeated by Mr Hogan for Wanganui, three Parliaments and nine sessions; and Mr T. E. Taylor; two Parliaments and seven sessions. The Right Hon. R. J. has been elected for ten Parliaments and has seen thirty-one sessions; the Hon. T. Y. Duncan nine Parliaments and twenty-eight sessions j and the Hon. J. G. Ward and the Hon. J. Carroll seven Parliaments and twenty-one sessions, the Hon. W. Hall-Jones seven Parliaments and eighteen sessions, the Hon. C. H. Mills six Parliaments and seventeen sessions, and the Hon. Mr McGowan six Parliaments and fourteen sessions. The Hon. Sir W. J. Steward has the " record," luting" boon elected for ten Parliaments and served for thirtythroe (tensions. Sir William Steward ami Mr J. VV. Thomson entered the House in 1871, Sir William Rossell in 1876, Mr Seddon in 1879, and Mr Duncan arid Mr Buchanan i 1882.