AUSTRALIAN MORALS.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVII, Issue 2604, 11 September 1909, Page 3

AUSTRALIAN MORALS.

PJTFALIIS O'.- YOUTH.

SIR JOHN MADDEN SPEAKS OUT.

“Our Gravest Peril” was the .subject of .an address delivered by the Chief Justice (Sir John Madden) before a congregation that filled the Australasian Church, Melbourne, on a recent Sunday afternoon.. Dr. .Strong introduced the speaker. Sir John Madden §aid that the subject had been brought under his notice by some information relating to the marked and rapid increase of childmothers in the Carlton Refuge. He felt warranted in speaking publicly on what was a delicate subject, because, while the evil thrust itself on the observation of everyone. with eyes to see and ears to hear, it came more concretely to the minds of judges in the course of their every-day business. Everybody realised the vital importance which, the purity, chastity, and honor of a nation’s! women werei to that nation. If women were indisposed to regard virtue and purity as being of great importance, and if they would not impress their importance on their children, then the results were so farreaching and disastrous that war, famine, and pestilence were incomparably milder afflictions. Australians had achieved wonderful things, in their country, but surely they could find, means to ameliorate the evil or era-

dicate it altogether. However inadequate the results of any experiment might be, there was no experiment which could be half so bad 'as the experiment of doing ltfothing at all. They heard it.' said that it" would be unjust to apply any restrictions against the male sex, and that females were just as bad as males.: That they were as bad or worse was a position that sometimes could not be resolutely controverted.; but, assuming that was so, where did justice come in? If the man. chose to abstain, and.not to yield to temptation, then the worst could not happen by any possibility. (Applause. If he did not yield, then, apart from the moral stain and its consequences oh his character, ho suffered no material loss. On the othor hand, the girl suffered riiin—rum, utter, absolute, and irretrievable. Very often it came upon her in the very bud and blossom of her womanhood, at a, time when a new impulse, which she did not understand, was commencing to stir within her; when she had no judgment sufficiently developed to realise the vastness of the evil she had done, and no discretion to measure the, proportion between present enjoyment and its terrible consequences, which would • last for a lifetime. Where could the justice be in leaving things alone? The man could avert it all, and, if he did not, why should he not be the one to suffer? (Applause.) The subject, Sir John' Madden continued, would be dealt with in three divisions:—l. The evil and its extent, as he had seen or understood it. 2. The causes, so far as ho could gather; and 3. Possible remedies which suggested themselves to his mind. In passing to and fro from the suburbs at night,- he, like, others, had been struck:, by the numbers "of ;little girls, attractive, welldressed, but obviously only children, to be seen in the streets, "wandering about’V. sometimes with men,- sometimes in search of them; t' At-10. or IT o’clock at night they were still about, and still without any guardianship or protection. Irresponsible people said: “Our young people are not like other young people.” Personally, he was certain that the}' were no better than the young people ote other countries, full of ithe same weakness, and ready to yield to the same temptations. These

voung people were to be seen in the streets and ,in the parks. - Along the beach, between Port Melbourne and Sandringham, for three seasons in the year the whole place was covered with girls who shquld be at home in bed. (Applause.) They were to be seen in the company of men whom no wise parent would permit them to be in company with. Very often they were in the'company, of boys, who, from their very circumstances, were unfitted to be husbands. - What the result to the girl was no one doubted, be the pretences what they might. To the hospitals they could look for some more accurate information. In the Women’s Hospital during the year ended June 30 there were 137 cases of confinement of women-, or rather, girls, under the age of 18 years. Of those 90 were single, which meant that 65| per cent, of the whole of the girls were under 18. Nineteen were between the ages of 14 and 16. In the Carlton, Refuge during the month before the annual meeting there was a total of 53 inmates. Of these, 34 were under 20 years of age, 13 were under the age of 17, three were only 15,, and-oipe was 14^.. Voices.—Shame.' . Sir John Madden : A-. little , while since he had tried, a case .in which the child mother Ayas,'barely .12$ -years. .If •such- things did not give wise people cause to pause and think, he did., not know what’ " would. He remembered," and they remembered, a time when if any one incident Of that kind had occurred the country.. would have;,wrung with horror. (Applause.) . NowL the thing was coming to- be regarded as something- thak-was inevitable. When a girl sued for the maintenance of her child the Man often strenuously denied having anything to do with her, and strove to show that she was a person of no character, as though she were a. dissolbte, abandoned woman, instead of a child. Tlie girl was, very often-rturn-ed out of court altogether, disbelieved and .discredited, with added contumely to that which had already befallen her.; If;the case went to a higher court, she; was. subjected to cross-examination that had of necessity to be keen and searching, in the face of a court; full, of people. In a majority of oases the jury would acquit, and the final result was that, the girl, in addition to her knowledge of her original wrong would be embittered by the discredit and, disgrace of the jury. They could easily, imagine the case -when that finale was' reached. The girl would have several; opportunities in respect to- the child.. She could hand it over to the professional murderess, abandon it.so. that exposure would result in its death, or expose it where it could be rescued. before it died. Those were inevitable consequences. i ;; p What' were - the causes? proceeded .'Sir .John Madden. He would say, and most people would sa~ that one reason, and perhaps the greatest, was that the control of .those parents had beep les"eeiied in respect to their children .- (Applause:) rOne saw evidence of- that in the.children, in the press, in the evil literature that’was a pestilence, and in the preaching of a doctrine of liberty for young people. They heard it-ask-ed: -‘Why should the Legislature interfere with, the true control of ,'the home? That wouTd be true if home control - were effective, hut ,if it were not, what would .supply ..control if not the Legislature? -IThe State -had -an interest in the child, and Had already imposed restrictions for its protection. ■ : - . . . ,

■ - • ■ ’ • . ~ . ■ .(Applause.) - When on circuit, in the country he had been particularly struck with the depravity of the children giving evidence in these cases. It appeared that the children travelled long distances too and from .school; and without any guardianship, and they had these- opportunities for wrong-doing. After finding juries hard-hearted, sensible men acquitted the bby concerned. He had made inquiries among the people, and had found that a feeling ox-

, isted that while it was one fat nor’a ’ son that day, it might' be nearer homo the next day. Another serious cause | was the manifest decay of the refigrbus 1 sense. (Applause.) The religious sense was a great buttress of the moral character. Many people nowadays were philosophers and students of modern thought. . They had decided to their own satisfaction that there was no material hell, but they were not so sure about Heaven. He could not, for obvious reasons, deal with the political difficulties which underlay the question of religious training. He recognised, however, that there was a very great blank between the end of school life at 14, and the time when the boy or girl reached the age when they had to work for themselves. They wanted means whereby children could be trained during this interval, and institutions to which they could be compulsorily sent to receive that training. (Applause.) The cacliet system for schoolboys was good, but there should be another system whereby boys who idled about the streets could bo phy-

sically trained, orougnt uncier discipline arid reminded of the responsibilities of their manhood. (Applause.) ■ Those were causes, with a few suggestions for amendment, said Sir John Madden. , There were other remedies. In addition to the training of boys.and girls after they left school, there should lie'something in the nature of a curfewbell for those children, and particularly girls, who hung about the. streets at night. (Applause.) Young girls had no business there, and should only be allowed out with their fathers, mothers, or brothers. It might be argued that after being at school or business all day the children wanted fresh air, hut if the loss of fresh air would do the girls mischief the loss they would sustain in the streets arid parks would do them fifty times more evil.' It was also important that parks and gardens should be closed, say, at 7 o’clock. (Applause.) The beaches should be patrolled by police or other officials, who should send the young girds home. (Renewed applause.) Another suggestion that might ot first startle people was that the difficulty facing a girl suing for maintenance in the police court should be removed' by legislation. At present she was bound to prove that the man proceeded against was the father of the child. He thought, however, that when she had proved that the father of the child hadbeen misconducting himself with her within the necessary period the burden should be changed to him to show that he was not the father of the child. Atpresent the girl was constantly defeated by the man calling a number olf other men, who made other allegations against her, but these men would be more careful under the system, he had suggested. The idea might seem startling, but the alteration of the onus of proof had been made .in other cases. There was, another remedy dealing with another aspect of the evil. There were often cases where the-mother, was hope-

less and desperate, and was ready to murder the child herself, or by a professional person, for there were murderesses of great reputation in that res-pect-people to whose tender mercies babies were sent frorri other states. To obviate all that horror, and the destruction of the nation’s over-fine sensibilities, a foundling hospital should be established in the city, somewhere easy of access, where a cnild. miglat.be delivered safely and secretly. (Applause). He had been informed that there were many girls who did not know that institutions did exist. Tlvese were the girls -who were driven to the desperate straits he had pictured.There was another evil to which lie wished to refer, that also resulted in murder—the use of drugs- by persons qualified ‘ only by their very audacity. These tilings could be obtained by a mere child for the asking. Legislation should see that they could not be procured except under a certificate., (Applause.) One thing, said Sir Jqbn Madden, in concluding, • that would have a'great effect would -be the resolute moral resentment of the whole body of the public against those evil things to which he had referred. If they roused thernselves to, a recognition of what it threatened, if they regarded it for the shocking and desperate evil it was, the effervescence it would cause would bring about, if not by the means he had suggested, then- -by other means by which they would .end the evil, and ensure that no blot-so foul- or .desperate should rest upon the face of Australia.; (Applause.) • ' - ■ ' v i