JUVENILE DEPRAVITY.

White Ribbon, Volume 22, Issue 258, 18 December 1916, Page 9

JUVENILE DEPRAVITY.

Revelations made in the Auckland Police Court lately have aroused an intense feeling of grief and indignation throughout the Dominion. A little cornei was lifted of the covering which is so carefully spread over the dark plague spots to be found in our cities. It is well that we should see things as they are, but it is better that we should get a glimpse of things as they ought to be. evils are not necessary, but are largely due to the low ideals held by so many

on the subject of purity. An equal standard must be demanded from both sexes. Two causes were given for the awful state of things revealed in Auckland. First, lack of parental control; second, lowness of the age of consent. The conditions of modern life have rendered it much more difficult for the parent to control the child in its teens. Girls go to shops, colleges, factories, and countless places of business; there they mingle with associates of whom their parents know little or nothing, and over w hom they have no power of choice. Children travel to and from school and business in trams and trams, and there mingle freely with people unknown to their parents. I’hen our fine climate tempts the girl shut up all day in school or office to go for an evening ramble in park and promenade, and there unscrupulous men wait to destroy them. Would we go back to the days when girls spent their time bending over fancy work in almost harem-like seclusion? Certainly not; the age of the chaperon has passed, but alas ! the age of the self-respecting girl has not yet fully dawned. How can we protect them? With singular unanimity, magistrate, jury, probation officer, Education Board, and social reformer are ask.ng for women police. They would be no experiment, for they have been tried and proved capable in America, Great Britain, Australia, and other plates. Women, tactful and resourceful, are needed to patrol our parks and streets to take home young girls who are out at night, to keep a watchful eye on men who accost girls, and entice them with joy rides and other devices to ruin them. There is a great work awaiting women police here. The Auckland Magistrate lamented the fact that a girl so young could legally consent to her own ruin. All workers among the women who lead lives of shame tell us that they started on this life before 21, and most of them before 18. Said a Commissioner of Police: “If you get a girl safely past 20, there is little danger of her becoming a prostitute.” How necessary to guard the girl, then, till at least 18J W'e believe that the State should protect a girl’s honour as long as it protects her property. Had that taxidriver swindled the girls out of property the law could have punished him, but because he only robbed them of their purity and innocence, no law

can touch him. When will our laws recognise that property is not the most valuable thing in the world? Young lives are worth more to the State than any amount of property. We cannot afford to let men of immoral life ruin and blast the future mothers of our race. We must arouse ourselves and thunder at the doors of Parliament until it passes laws to protect our girls. Women police must be appointed and the age of consent raised.