IMMORALITY IN AUCKLAND.

Temuka Leader, Issue 1948, 26 September 1889, Page 4

IMMORALITY IN AUCKLAND.

A sensation was caused at Auckland on Tuesday by the publication of a letter by the Bev. CK B. Monro, a well-known Presbyterian clergyman, and one of the prominent advocates for the repeal of the C. D; Act, giving an account of a recent night) visit to houses of questionable repute, ! in the company of the police. He says: —■ “ Our visits round the city were not confined to what may be called slums, where the criminal and depraved, are expected to congregate, for we entered places of questionable repute in some of the moat respectable 1 localities,' and certainly I could i not have believed that there were such'' large and mag-; niflcently furnished 1 houkea ’ in a; comparatively small city like Auckland, with its present . commercial de-| pression. We entered twenty-four! houses, And called at about thirty.! In these houses were. found, over 60; many of them intelligent, welli educated, and, judging ! from appear-' ances, must have once ! moved ini respectable circles. During the tiinei the 0. D. Act was in force,there were! seventy fiVe professional prostitutes | known to>i the police, ; but there arei now at leasts-400,' not speaking of; about - other 4CO who are' suspected.' The majority of the girls' I *saw were \ between fifteen and twenty, and I am safe in stating that there are scores i living lives of vice who are very much under fifteen years of age. When the C. D. Act was in existence juvenile prostitiiti,on was' almost driven from bur streets, but now you could not walk from top to bottom ©f Queen Street, on u Saturday eveping without meeting at least"fifty Vdurig girls who are living A life of vice. It is usual to argue' thAt vice was driven into secrecy by the C. D. Act, but I learned from my visits that such was not the case, for women under surveillance ;of the police were only too ready to inform /upon others- They were then in fact driven out of the city, but now they are coming in every, day, and, if something is not done soon to stem the increasing tide of vice it will be simply impossible to keep our youtha pure. I also learned from tny visits that the Christian Church in’ all her branches is only working oh the surface, and that there is a mass of corruption beneath our present religious end benevolent machinery. But how such is to be reached I cannot say. It may be said I that the Salvation Array teaches and saves Some of these unfortunates, and Ido not dispute this; but lam confident they could not reach the class Ireferto.”