SUPREME COURT.

Taranaki Daily News, 5 February 1918, Page 5

SUPREME COURT.

NEED FOR PARENTAL CONTROL. HOMILY BY MR. JUSTICE STRINGER. By Telegraph.—Press Association. Auckland, Last Night. The criminal sessions of the Supreme Court opened to-day. In his charge to the grand jury, Mr. Justice Stringer said that it was satisfactory to note a marked decrease in the number of sexual offences against young girls, which had formed such a deplorable feature of previous calendars. Ha was firmly convinced that these offences were due to' the lack of proper supervision and control by parents. It certainly was a fact that young people were allowed to wander about the streets at night without the attendance of'a responsible person. He hoped that the diminution in this class of offence was an indication that parents at last had come to a proper sense of their responsibility. One offence on the list was illustrative of what lie had been saying with regard to the need for strict control. In this case two children were concerned —one a little girl about five, and the other a boy of seven. The evidence showed that the children had been picked up in the street by a man, who had taken them to an unfrequented place, and had sent the boy away to get sweets. Having got the girl by herself, it was alleged that he committed an offence against her. There was another charge against the man of having committed an offence of a similar nature in a picture theatre. Thomas Rowe was sentenced to three years' hard labor for the forgery of a withdrawal order on the Auckland Savings Bank, and uttering the same to an assistant. Accused waß warned that for the next offenco he would be declared a habitual criminal. A colored man, William Scarboro, on a charge of breaking and entering, with intend to commit a crime, pleaded guilty and was sentenced to three years' hard labor, and wus declared a habitual criminal for the third time.