The Waikato Times AND THAMES VALLEY GAZETTE. THURSDAY, MARCH 12, 1889.

Waikato Times, Volume XXXII, Issue 2601, 14 March 1889, Page 2

The Waikato Times AND THAMES VALLEY GAZETTE.

THURSDAY, MARCH 12, 1889.

Equal ami exact justice to all men, Ot whatsoever state or persuasion, religious or political. _

Tiib spread of juvenile depravity in the colony is creating «rave anxiety and apprehension. The appearance in the Police Courts of offeudors of both sexes of tender years has, of late, hojcome a nions frequent and very painful spectacle. The minds of magistrates and justices in ditferent centres of the population have been much exercised over the question, and the diiliculty of dcaliiis; adequately with the evil and checking its growth has been made apparent to them as administrators of the law. Then! is little or no recognised system in which proper punitive measures suitable for youthful criminals are provided. In the absence of reformatories, houses of correction and institutions of a similar nature, young offendors, who, in the opinion of the magistrates, require more drastic treatment than being set at liberty with a birching, must suffer tlie only alternative of incarceration in a common gaol. Magistrates, as a general rule, revolt against this course, in consequence of the associations with hardened convicts that it. iMitfiils on tlie younger offendors, and the demoralising inlluence of which is most apt to result in their continuance- in a career of crime, Tlie result of several conferences on the .subject, lately, lias led the justices to come to the conclusion that a vast amount of the juvenile criminality of the present day owes its origin to the laxity of colonial parents. They consider that they should visit the "responsibility of the crimes of the children on the parents, and inflict direct punishment upon the hitter. In this way they hope to compel parents to exercise that healthy control over the actions and passions of their children which are now absent in the training, such as it is, that is given in the home. The plan proposed is, without a right one, and one that the Legislature should empower the courts to actupon asa judicial means of reforming the evil.' But, is not Parliament itself responsible for this deplorable condition? Was the State been careful and far-seeing in promoting a high moral standard amongst its youth? It has monopolised the duties of education, and by the absence in its system of any inculcation of exact and reverential nerecutions in the minds of children, it lms disregarded the very first principles, recognised as necessary .since the dawn of human civilization, in the creation of a wise and righteous pooplf. The national education system fi'ams superficial knowledge into the heads of the young, without erudition. It forces thom'througli the standards at high pressure, without instilling into them a familiarity with ihe practical duties of a useful colonial life. It manuI'jtrtufCß precocious young men and young women, who arc let loose without any other respect for the obligations of citizenship, the in-

tßgrily .'inrl good order of society, the reverence duo to nqp. and to sacred things, or thts willing, cheerful obwdit'iico to the country's biws thiin is inspired !>y the fear of n. policciinan. The State Ims sowed the wind, suul seems destined to renp the whirlwind. Its educational ursui'patioii of the care of the young has encouraged parental laxity find demoralised the bonetieial inllntmoi's of tin; homo. Trie home is the unit that makes the nation. Weak, unc .ii! rulie.l f.i.mily circles pi-ndiiuc a loose statn of society, which, in it* turn, iilfects the whole iiiition, and sends it on the downward grade. Parental neglect is a colonial characteristic ; and, besides what we have, already said as to its cause, it is further countenanced by the corrupting operations of the Charitable Aid Boards. Wife desertion and the deliberate relegation of the support of children to the State are becoming more and more common and open practices. Hence the stereotyped pleas of inability to control their unruly and neglected children so often heard in the police courts from parents who seek to shunt them off on to the Government — their large-hearted godfather. Then again, society is itself to blame for much oE this moral decreptitnde. It may be clue to the state of transition in which social order the colony is yet in ; but, it is painfully true that we deliberately wink at sin and put little value on the loss of self-respect. Society makes associates of men of conspicuous ill repute and immorality. Men of vicious tendencies and want of principle are placed in positions of trust, without question. If, then, we bestow places of public honour on men who are acknowledged blackguards, who murder Truth and take pride in habitual blasphemy and obscenity of expression, what other effect on the rising generation can we. expect by such examples than a most pernicious and degrading on&i If we are not careful and jealous in such things ; if we do not draw a clear line of demarcation between those who are pure and right-minded and those who are low and debased, we cannot be surprised at the growth of criminality and loose principles in our youth. If we lay down no rigid rule of honorable conduct for society at large in all its relations in life, our children will not know how to restrain their animal instincts. They will follow the examples set them in public and private life, and who will there he to reproach them? They will be our accusers, and will say, "By these lights you have guided us; we know no other. We only tread in vour own footsteps."