The Wairarapa Daily. SATURDAY, DECEMBER 11, 1886 JUVENILE CRIME.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume VIII, Issue 2474, 11 December 1886, Page 2

The Wairarapa Daily. SATURDAY, DECEMBER 11, 1886 JUVENILE CRIME.

At the Napier criminal sittings of the Supreme Court last week, tho question of juvenile orimfl and how to deal with it was forced on tho attention of the Chief Justice by the number of cases in whioh grave breaches of the law had been oonimitted by mere youths, It appears from the reports of the Hawkea Bay Herald, that Sir James Prendergast expressed a doubt as to the success of industrial and reformatory schools in reclaiming the young from vfoious habits. One boy before the Court had spent five years in St Mary's Industrial School,; and on his return home to Napier adopted housebreaking as'an occupation. In this instance the culprit had respectable connections, and was not driven to orime by any want of the necessaries of existence. The Chief Justice, indeed, expressed an opinion that thb'high wages paid in the Colony generally, and more especially in the Hawkes Bay District, had a demoralis- j ing effect upon boys in many instances, and was a faotor in the production of crime. Our Napier, contemporary describes another factor in the following reference to another case which was before the Court :*- ."Youth is plastic, and easily receives impressions for. good or evil, and in youth alone the lesson of self control—that most valuable of all lessons—oan be inculcated. Solomon laid it down that to spare the rod meant the ruin of the child, and we fear that'in. New Zealand too little attention is paid to

this golden rule, enunciated as the result of observation by the shrewdest observer of ancient days. In veriest childhood the lesson must be. commenced, for later it may never be taught. Not only does every passing year confirm habit and render the. young nature less impressionable, but the opportunities of self support caused by the demand for the labor of wellgrown boys and girls may render nugatory the attempt to teach late that which-should have been taught earlier, In the special case we have before referred to, the father, who bad to admit that he was" too easy" with the boy in the dock, also stated that the lad ran away from home when thirteen years of age, and had since lived away. It was not bo stated, but it was a fair inference that the boy ran away in consequence of an attempt to exert on thirteen years the parental influence and control which should have been stamped on the toddling child iu petticoats." The leniarks of our contemporary as well aB the thoughtful utterances of the Chief Justice, furnish material for vivid add powerful reflection. One practical suggestion made by the former deserves attention by the legislature. It is that judges instead of being obliged to commit juvenile offenders to a reformatory school which possibly may do them more harm than good, should bo allowed to board out or apprentice youthful culprits with persons who may be trusted to oxeroise a healthy influence over them. This appears to be an experiment well worth trying, and it redounds to the credit of the Chief Justice that he should have expressed so keen an anxiety to prevent crime rather than to punish it.