DOMINION’S MORALS.

Taranaki Daily News, 17 May 1922, Page 7

DOMINION’S MORALS.

DIFFERENCE OF OPINION. AUCKLAND THE WORST TOWN. Remarks made by the Chief Justice, Sir Robert Stout, and Mr. E. C. Cutten, S.M., in. regard to a wave of crime passing over New’ formed the subject of a number of interviews in Tiro ar u. The local magistrate, Mr. E. D. Mos* fey, said.- “I am not prepared to take so gloomy a view of the present conditions of the community and of the future which will develop from it, as Mr. Cutten has expressed. I see so many influences making for improvement, ‘some of them comparatively new influences, the full effects of which are not yet attained. There is really a great amount of effort devoted to social improvement which unobtrusively is affecting public opinion. Auckland is notoriously rather worse in some respects than other centres of the Dominion. This would 'be accounted for partly by climatic conditions, partly by the fact that Auckland is a large city and a large seaport with a considerable temporary population arriving from Australia, the Islands, and America. The evils referred to by Mr. Cutten are reflections of weak home life. !n the ‘warm climate of Auckland the borne has not the same value to young people as in cooler districts. Except in wet weather, the home is chiefly a place to eat and sleep. Such a state of things of course tends to weaken parental control.” Mr. Mosley agreed with Mr. Cutten that there is too much pleasure-seeking in this country. Police Inspector Willis, who has had 40 years’ experience as a police officer, said he did not see any sign of degeneraev in the people of this Dominion. He believed the crime record of New Zealand compared very favourably indeed with that of any other part of the Empire. Looking back over his long experience, he could not see that the moral condition of the country was worse now than before the war or further back.