A SOCIAL SORE.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 186, 12 January 1912, Page 4

A SOCIAL SORE.

We welcome the letter appearing in columns yesterday over the initials "H.R." as being a valuable statement of opinion on the "Hush!" tactics common throughout New Zealand in connection with sexual affences. Although sexual offences 'of the most atrocious description take place frequently in NewZealand, there has never yet been a general outcry against the 'brutes who commit them, and there is no evidence of determination on the part of the authorities to adequately deal with the fester. The case mentioned in the letter, where a man was merely fined for attempts on women, shows to what a deplorable level we allow ourselves to fall in these matters. The fact that the freedom of a sexual offender of the worst type is merely a license to him to commit crime seems not to occur to the authorities. It ie a still more remarkable fact that there has been no record in New Zealand for many years past of any effort by the people themselves to personally deal with offenders. We know, and the authorities know, that these offenders are merely dangerous animals, and, while admitting they are for the most part irresponsible,°we do not admit, because of this, that they should not be treated as the beasts they are. It is inconceivable, in our view, that the father of a girl child who has been assaulted by a human auimal should be content to allow him to escape, and it is still more inconceivable that the State has not long since treated this human scum to the rod. In New South Wales the crime is still regarded as seriously as murder, and men have been executed for sexual assaults. We become excited about offences not a quarter so vile as this particlar one, but only one person here or there raises a voice when a criminal of this type is let off with a fine, There is no* doubt whatever that the public conscience in New Zealand is a particularly dull article and that it wants sharpening. Protests are useful, but actions are required. When a body of citizens, animated by a desire to kill this pest, takes the law into its own hands and deals with a sexual offender as he ought to he dealt with, the authorities, which regard an attack on the virtue of a woman.or a girl child as less serious than the theft of a pair of boots, will wake up. The evil has become so common in New Zealand that the people appear to believe it is not worth fighting. It is the detestable creatures who commit these crimes who should be fought, and it should be made impossible for them to commit more than one. We are not yet perhaps civilised enough to adopt surgical means, but the foul blot might be wiped out by a generous use of the whip. When the authorities call for volunteer flagellators a thousand fathers of girls will apply for the job.