IMMORALITY.

Taranaki Daily News, 25 August 1916, Page 6

IMMORALITY.

STAMPING IT OUT| (From Our Own Correspondent). ■ Wellington, August 22. Tlie new War Regulations do not deal specifically with venereal disease, but they contain all that in required to enable the authorities to apply the measures already indicated by the Minister for Internal"Affairs. The existing lawmakes provision lor the treatment of venereal disease in prisons and for the detention of prisoners found to be suffering from the trouble. Power exists, also, to arrange for the treatment of the disease in the ordinary 'hospitals. The additional authority now given the police in dealing with prostitution will supplement the present law. The regulation dealing with the expulsion of offenders from particular districts is highly important in its? bearing upon the Defence Department's share of the social problem. The Commissioner of IFolica will have power to prohibit a convicted prostitute from residing within fifty miles of any place named in the order" This clause will make it possible for the police to clean up most effectually tha neighborhood of the military camps, which have attracted undesirable characters from various parts of the country. The Government intends to mai:c active use of the powers it now possesses, with the object of checking the social evil, and the police will be instructed to begin proceedings as soon as the regulations come into operation. The net hag been spread very wide, and though some peonle mav manage to slip through it, the' Ministers are convinced that an improvement is going to be affected. The position in Wellington in the past has been most anomalous The military authorities have thought it necessary to warn recruits against certain specified houses known to bt centres of uangn, but the police have not had power to close the premises mentioned.