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Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 231, 28 March 1912, Page 4

A SOCIOLOGICAL PROBLEM. In a country whose democratic ideals are almost Utopian, it seems a trifle paradoxical that it should be found necessary to establish a Society for the Protection of Women and Children. But unfortunately poor humanity, whatever its surroundings, is prone to err, and bright and happy though our general { conditions are, evei New Zealand has its seamy side. The Society in question has amply justified its existence in the past, and it is gratifying to learn from our telegrams that it contemplates an eve a more vigorous propaganda in the future. It is not pleasant to Have to admit that this is both desirable and necessary, but it is useless to attempt to blink the fact. The strong-minded men and ■women who have thrown themselves so whole-heartedly into the movement do not receive the public support that should rightly be theirs. There is a silly tendency among the unthinking to regard them as prying interlopers who have nefarious designs upon the sacredness of the home that is an Englishman's castle. But there is still an elemental streak in man, which in its degenerate application makes him regard his women and his children as mere household chattels. Sociology, even among civilised nations, can quote hundreds of in-} stances of this, and our own fair land ' is not exempt. Of course, the sex problem figures in this unfortunate situation, and the illustrations quoted in our telegrams are as painful as they are piti- ' able. But in other directions there is I room and to spare for a more compre- ' hensive scheme for lightening the bur- j dens of the-women and children. The ! recent legislation wliich has provided for j co-operation with the Commonwealth in bringing wife-deserters to book, has already had a beneficial effect, but further protective legislation, along the lines suggested by the Society, with perhaps some modification, is urgently necessary. Perhaps the platform of the Society errs a little on the side of elaborateness, but it is probably stimulated by an appreciation of George Herbert's philosophy that "Who aimeth at the sky shoots higher far than he that means a tree." There should be a live and active branch of the Society in every town of importance, not as an interfering agency, but in a capacity of guardianship. The mothers of a nation are of more importance than its soldiers, and their children are its coming people. Man may be "the great lord of all things," but his kingdom would be stable as water did not his womankind rule beside him. Blessed she is; God made her so. And deeds of week-day holiness Drop from her, noiseless as the snow. Her gentle habit of secluding herself in the background makes the necessity for her protection all the greater. It should be a «ocial privilege rather than a legislative commandment to do this, but in the meantime there is room for a more personal guardianship, and in such measure as the Society can secure this it will earn the heartfelt gratitude of the community.