THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 11, 1908. WHAT SHOULD BE DONE?

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXI, Issue 9052, 11 February 1908, Page 4

THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 11, 1908. WHAT SHOULD BE DONE?

A case which came before the Auckland Police Court, last week, shows the necessity for some amendment of the law under which offenders against women and children are dealt with. Creatures of the type of James Vesey, who was convicted upon three charges of assaulting little girls, are j not fit to he placed in the same penal category as felons of any other type, and ought to be put out of the way of preying upon or mixing with any section of society for the term of their natural lives. Vesey was convicted two years ago of an offence of the same kind, and the judge, in sentencing him last week to seven years' penal servitude, remarked that "it was quite clear that he was one of ! those persons who ought never to be allowed at liberty at all." His Honour added that if it were within his power he would have treated him as an habitual criminal. We assume from this that seven years is the longest term of imprisonment the law allows. If this is so the law should be made much more severe.

No man for a second offence such as that of which this libidinous ruffian was convicted ought ever again to be at liberty; but care should be taken that such felons should be no charge upon the State; They should he put not only to hard labour, but labour that will be of some value to the country .which permits them, to live, and which will also reimburse the State for their detention in prison.