The Daily News THURSDAY, MARCH 7. CRIME AND CURE.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XLVIII, Issue 81918, 7 March 1907, Page 2

The Daily News THURSDAY, MARCH 7. CRIME AND CURE.

King Edward lately opened the lieu Criminal Courts in London, built oi the site of the famous Newgate <iuol

where thousands of malefactors have been hanged, drawn, quartered, burnt, i tortured; and done to death by our ancestor*, of whom we nre so proud, lite cable said that there was "gloat enthusiasm" when the King opened the new Courts, not, we because the opening of the new courts proved (he existence of iarge numbers of criminals, but because the people are loyal to the Sovereign. King Edward spoke nt the opening of the barbarous penal laws that existed a hundred years ago and of the better code that prevads to-day. One hundred years ago the fcheepstealer was hanged out -of harnl. You see the sheepstealer was usually a person who was poor and perhaps hungry. Both poverty and hunger I in the eye of aristocrats one bundled year* ago was a sutlicient reason for (i public hanging, and thnv is little doubt that tlio magistracy and judiciary generally had a power of life and death that was exercised in a brutal fashion. The gentleman who killed a "fellow" for sport was doing a thing that every gentleman had a pwfeeti right to do, but the hungry peasant wno killed a gentleman's rabbit was treated to a life of exile in Botany Bay.

Newgate has witnessed villainies that are not possible, at least in the British Kmpire, nowadays. There were days when the presence of mental disease was unknown or disregarded. A madman was 'punished for his madness, the " scold ' was pilloried, the drunk, that is to say, the poor drunk, put in the stocks and made a target Jul' everv passing small boy. The prevailing idea was that there was no cure for the smallest crime but transport, long terms of imprisonment, Hogging, lirebranding or complete burning. Historians tell of unspeakable brutalities performed in the way of "justice"'and we still boast of the liberty, equality and fraternity that has always been so precious a possession of the iirilisher. The march of science luu been the chief reason for a more sensible examination of the causes of crime, and to-day, although there- are numerous cases of the brutality and stupidity of the law, not only in Britain but in her colonies, there is little of the Jiendishness that characterised ti»e sentences that used to be meted out in ''the good old days."

There really seem* to be to-day a more honest desire to cure clime and to recognise in the criminal a person wnose actions are beyond his own control, the wrong-doer lacks the power of resistance and although it is neee-sary in the interest of humanity that persons who have lost their self-control must be coerced, no really adequate means have lieen t:iken to euro the mental condition of a person who commits a crime wh eh he has been forced to accomplish. Th<> '•drunk" is not a product of to-day. J)runkenuess was a common condition in the tine of .Mo>e> and even at so remote a time, according to Holy Writ, it was considered (juKo proper to get intoxicated provided that the drunkenness didn't ~oci'Ur_.tua.-tiai'jv.ni any nn.» day; The gentleman of one hundfed and fifty ,\vars ago \vi> a very poor gentleman indeed if he wasn't also a 'drunkard, and our forefathers held il as a sort of honour thai they were "three bottle men' or four. Drunkenness ,'s a crime in iUeli, but under nianv condilious a crime that (he criminal is unable iu light an I induce., a cond'tion of mini that easily leads to other and greater climes

The punishment for (he di-:.t of drunkenness has always been line or imprisonment. The only curative treatment for this disease has been the humiliation of a police court and a short imprisonment that gives the imprisoned an opportunity of saving up a superb thir-t. Tue (jiiesiion of drunkenness presents tin* greatest problem to our magistrates. Only the other day one of our .-v ipend ary .Magistrates had before him a poor woman who was charged with being drunk fur tlie 180 th time. It wili be seen that this woman had been given every opportunity to feed her disease for many years, and therefore the deei-ion of the New Nouth Wale? Government (o deal with the continued drunkard in a reasonable way may be welcomed as an attempt to use the common sense that has lain dormant in the Umpire since William the Conqueror ianded in jiritain. i'he N.ft.W. Government proposes to set aside a part of Darlinghurst Gaol for the detention of habitual drunkards. They will be detained indeterminately, or, at least, until there is reasonable ground for believing that a cure has been all'ected, and that, moral control lias regained a place in the minds of the diseased unfortunates. If drunkenness is the root of all the s':u and suH'ering ami crime in tlie community, the authorities have been long enough in attacking Hie ruol. No amount of speech-making will have the least eH'eet on disease, and much may therefore be hoped for from lite enlightened attitude taken by the .N.S.W. authorities. In the case of crimes not attributable to drink,, science may yel show a way towards diminution and cure, by recognising that no .-aue, wellbalanced person deliberately does evil, and is invariably led to the commission of crime by e reumstanees over which he mentally has no control.