The Daily News. SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 19. SEXUAL DEGENERACY.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 319, 19 February 1910, Page 4

The Daily News. SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 19. SEXUAL DEGENERACY.

One of the most serious problems of crime In this country, if we are to judge from the charge-sheets of recent Supreme Court calendars, is that of dealing with the alarming prevalence of sexual offences, particularly outrages on young girls and children. • In older countries, where the conditions of life are different, where a considerable proportion oi the communities is bred and reared in vicious surroundings, where also the degenerates of a pampered idle class wallow in lust, excesses of the worst possible kind are not surprising, but in a young and healthy country ni:eNew Zealand, it is surely a most disquieting sign. The time has certaiily arrived when repressive measures based on a fuller realisation ot the danger than has yet been evidencd by the la.w, should be devised and put into operation. A few weeks ago an Auckland jury, after adjudicating on a serious case of this kind, conveyed to the presiding Judge its sense of the enormity of the offence, and recommended a more frequent use of the lash and the infliction of the heaviest possible penalty snort of capital punishment—life imprisonment. Whatever may have been the merits of the case which led the jury to express its feelings so strongly, there is no doubt that public opinion is entirely with it in viewing such offences ■as the most serious in the criminal calendar. The public is not concerned .wth the method of correction, however; what is asked is that means should be devised such as will safeguard women and children from defilement by such men. It is for authorities on the subject to estimate whether the authors of sexual offences are irresponsible; whether as a class they are mentally and physically deficient, or whether, as many prominent experts hold, the insanity theory is untenable. Such questions are of the highest importance no doubt in devising correcting or repressive measures, but as we have said, the ordinary parent is concerned only that these men are not to be permitted to prey on innocent youth and to do very often irreparable physical and moral injury. Certainly, where an offence Is established society should, for its own protection, take such means as .would make it impossible for that offender ever to repeat his offence. Whether that assurance should be secured by enforced removal from fredojm or by means advocated oy the medical profession is one for the consideration of experts and the Legislature, al though we incline to the opinion that the drastic remedy suggested by th« latter would most effectually achieve the object desired.