The Daily News. MONDAY, MAY 26, 1919. MORAL LEPERS.

Taranaki Daily News, 26 May 1919, Page 4

The Daily News. MONDAY, MAY 26, 1919. MORAL LEPERS.

i He number. of. cases of indecent aaaaul* upon young children coming before tlie courts of the Dominion is increasing at a rate that is seriously alarming tlie Judges. The suggestion was made by [ Mr. Justice Stringer the other day that , the frequency of acch cases led him to [think the Judges should seriously consider ordering flogging in addition to imprisonment, and now wo have the Chief who admits that during his 20 ■jears' occupancy of the Bench he has !<Be*er ordered a man to be flogged, sup- ; porting the suggestion. He believes that if the lives of innocent little children areaot to be safe owing to their being attacked by sexual scoundrels, then the ijt. oat rigor of the Hot should be ap--1 plied to the offenders. We axe afraid l-the offenders are more numerous than ■■the court cases indicate, for there is a i national reluctance to being Htired up in unsavoury court proceedings, and only I those people with a stent sense of the duty they owe their children aad the community enlist the support of the •peKce. So that the dsagar is really (greater than ia geaamUy realised. The present system of punishment evidently has no dpterrenfcefteet upon these sexual and it ia cfaubtiat if corpora! juniahjnent willbMaael* aa itapsovauneafc, isi to- be feared, avo beyond redemption. They are nothing mage not less tten ? sexual maniacs, and abm&i too treated as audi, not by e«ttta o.t lav fcwfc IV wjurtft «£ siirgeoßa, ah&yiA te

The idea, of course, is no new one. It has been advocated for years by students of sexual criminology, who are convinced there is no other way of effectively dealing wHh this abhorrent form of crimin-ail-y Sentiment in the past has been against giving such powers to a surgical board, but, with p-oper safeguards, no objection can logically be taken. The fact is that we cannot allow our innocent young childreu to be contaminated, and perhaps ruined for life, by such foul monsters, who deserve, and should receive, no consideration at all. When they commit such crimes they offend against what is best and most sacred in the community, and should either be treated as lepers, and segregated for Kfe, or handed over to the surgeons and restored to respectability. Flogging is but a palliative; it would only further brutalise the brutes, and could never be a cure.