The Daily News. MONDAY, MAY 20, 1912. AN UNPLEASANT FAILING.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 277, 20 May 1912, Page 4

The Daily News. MONDAY, MAY 20, 1912. AN UNPLEASANT FAILING.

The presiding judge at the Christchurcli Supreme Court sessions has reiterated the warning issued by every Judge on the Bench and by every Stipendiary Magistrate in New Zealand about the extraordinary prudery that is so common in New Zealand. The Judge's re- [ marks were inspired by one of the sexual cases that are so common in this country. A Judge has no power to stop wholesale immorality among the people, and merely, administers the law. It is the business of the whole of respectable society to .vigorously attack the sore that poisons the social life of New Zealand. The chief reasons for the increase of sexual crime is the utter absence of national discipline, the contempt of authority and the absolute silence of all supposed philanthropic, religious and social bodies on the subject. We hare before commented 011 the extreme gravity of the matter, and although wide consideration is forthcoming at the expression of the plain opinion on the national fester (which is growing daily) no organised attempt is made either by the State or privately to wipe the disgrace out. While sexual sin is regarded as a matter that must not be publicly referred to, while every kind of public body eschews reference to it or aetion about it, while punishments do not fit the crime, the crime will grow. Up to now it has been considered absolutely indecent to discuss the most important function under the sun, and it is the habit of foolish persons not only to believe that their children are unlike every other human' being but to refuse from a false sense of modesty to point out the dangers and penalties attaching to ignorance of sexual matters. If the average adult could be persuaded to believe that 95 per cent, of all grave physical ills arc directly traceable to sexual causes he would perhaps see the necessity of keeping the country clean. In the matter of that product and ignorance the sex maniac, who is a specially detestable feature in New Zealand, no measures are too harsh. As he is quite unclaimable he merely encumbers the ground. There is no safety from him until he is under it. This class of person must not be discussed. It is more respectable to permit him to carry on his poisonous mission, deterred occasionally by periods of imprisonment! New Zealand is too young a country for the authorities to permit the poison to continue its work. The Magistrates do their duty when they pass sexual cases on to the Judges, and the Judges do their duty when they sentence wrong-doers and deliver homilies, which, however, have no effect whatever on the general conscience. The public is [largely engaged in problems that are of ! the least possible importance in comparison to the most vital one. The general public probably gets some sort of a surprise when it reads tKe long lists

of offences before the Supreme Court sessions in the various cities and towns

of New Zealand, but having had its sensation it relapses into the usual apathy. The churches, unfortunately, continue to discuss unessentials. If the churches pi .lid be induced to undertake a quiet, "i'.snlfish campaign against the sexual

■ n, if they would act without the publicity that is so dear to so many people, if they would study this worthy subject and really become acquainted at first hand with the truly awful conditions that exist under their unseeing eyes, they might effect some desirable change. It is not a subject for preachments; it is a matter for deeds. The habit of hushing these things up is fertilising further crops of sexual sin. If the Government, in its apparent desire to benefit the public health, published well-authenticated figures showing the number of sexual offences in New Zealand, the names of defaulting and unnamed fathers, the extraordinary percentage of sexual diseases and other information in respect J to the increasingly evil conditions, they i might convince the fathers and mothers I of the children to believe in the appalling prevalence of a preventable evil. We are aware that in again referring to this odious matter that we shall offend many people who are ignorant of the conditions, but it is only by constantly offending this class of wilfully blind person that general ignorance will be removed. We sincerely believe that the municipalities should recognise that theii duty is to the people in tlieir areas in regard to the sanctity and sweetness of life. The national police are quite unfitted for the task of dealing with this growing evil, and they merely handle flagrant cases that are forced on their notice. We know that if the medical men'of each community were commissioned by the municipalities to tell the plain truth in regard to the sexual evil in New Zealand and to give plain facts and figures, there would be universal horror. No exaggerated statements are necessary, and the simple verity would suffice for all purposes. At the bottom of the deplorable business is the stupid and j often criminal prudery of parents, and j because of this hospitals are filled and t gaols receive clients. No prominence j is given to the remarks of Judges on the subject, for the country is content to remain unpleasantly silent and supreme about a very unpleasant national failing.