THE SOCIAL EVIL.

Tuapeka Times, Volume II, Issue 91, 6 November 1869, Page 3

THE SOCIAL EVIL.

(To the Editor of the Tuapeka Times.) Sir,—Many of your subscribers may have read, and I trust with a feeling of regret, a letter by Dr. Copland with the above beading, in the " Daily Times " of the 2nd inat. Dr. Copland mii3t most certainly have wrongly read the Act when he can come to the conclusion that it gives to the vice "the character of legal respectability." However, passing over such errors as that, the married are very greatly the supporters of pimtitution, and that a designing person may degrade a virtuous woman by a prosecution by which he seems not aware that the l police authorities are the prosecutors, and must satisfy themselves before taking any steps ; let us try to see what is the need for, and what are the physical sind moral benefits to be derived from such a measure. Dr. Copland seems aware that prostitution is not to be put dow?i by the law—that there is a difference between vice and crime. Truly, it does seem deeply rooted in society when the frail ones of Flamburg, in the north, startled at so unusual a sight as that of a parson in that certain street (probably the Blievne SckwiegeSirasse, from which perhaps the Doct«r got h r s ideas of Continental morality), and the Neapolitan bona robm of the south, attracted by the Doctor's personal charms, hurried their " male touters " from their maccaroni to seoure him. It being admitted that prostitution, as

a discuss, is iuciuable, sai-eiy the next best thing is to mitigate its evils. Let us remove the means of mitigation out of j ii!! category of morality (not because i dure is anything immoral; in fact, I j "-li'ill .*!j> rtly show the reverse), and coui i-i>!i- :h» Act as a means of carrying out v vsii-y ii-.iportar.t hj-gionio measure. The -jureiy as to its immorality i) equalled only by th* absurdity of a similar outcry raised at the time of the discovery of vaccination when the prejudiced and "unco moral " declared it was wicked to mix thac taken from an animal without a soul with that of au animal with a soul, and so, to show their abhorrence, broke Dr. Jenner's windows. The Act has for its avowed object the framing of a. provision for tlie pvavention of the spread of venereal disease by giving a Justice power to authorize a medical man to inspect any woman suspected of having such disease, or of carrying on a trade by which she is liable to become infected with such disease; and in case of the woman proving diseased to authorize her removal to an hospital or reformatory until oured. Where is the immorality in this ? i 3 it not done continually m cases of cholera and small-pox I From statistics of the working of the Contagious Diseases Act in England, it appears that venereal disease has been reduced to a surprising extent. Jn one mouth at Portsmouth, iu the year 3365, the per centage of the soldiers admitted into hospital was 2 1-6 par cent. In the corresponding month, 1886, when the Act was in force, the per ceufcagQ was i only 1 1-24 per cent. ! Surely, with factssuch as these before us, and I could adduce many more, legislation has been iii a right direction. The great use of the act is to protect the offspring from sufferings, certainly not arising from their own acts, and here J>r. Copland thinks they are mo3tlv the children of married men. Well, if "it boI so, any measure must be most humane and imperative that would, a3 Mr. Fox says, "protect the unborn from hein°v through the guilt of the parents, born to a life of disease arid misery." But it is by no means necessary that the children born in wedlock should become tainted from the fathers committing sin since marriage, for, ns Dr. Copland well knows,, this most insidious disease lurks hid for years, perhaps through h'fo, aud vet breaks forth in the offspring. Though I have been endeavouring to show the bill's good effect hygienically, it has nevertheless a moral aspect. It is "provided that religious training and instruction shall be given, and In the Ilome Commission on this subject a*, similar act to the one under consideration has been the means of reclaiming many fallen women, and in many instances, restoring them to their friends. This is a subject of such great importance to the community that 1 trust your readers will view thi3 and kindred subjects in the light of broader.truth than supplied by any particular creed. I am, * &c, E. HALLEY, M.Pv G.S.L. Monteagle House, Tuapeka, Nov. 3..