Twin Evils

The twin evils of larrikinism and obscenity seem to be the peculiar curse of these colonies. Every day the foul harvest crops up at our Police Court, and were it not that every now and then cases occurred of abnormal depravity, our familiarity with the open sore—that is to say, its very greatness and extent— would blind us to its existence. At Monday's Police Court two cases were dealt with which may well arrest the attention of the most careless, and seriously exercise the thoughtful. Two boys, each of them described as 15 years of age, were charged before Mr. Day with making use of obscene language, with the result that the one was fined 10s or twelve hours, and the other 20s or forty eight hours imprisonment. We have no curiosity to know the precise language used by these boys, we presume from the result that it was of the usual horrible description, indicating as nearly as anything earthly can indicate a possession of the devil. But the result suggests, further, that however reprehensible the conduct of the first lad might be, the second was greatly worse. No doubt Mr Day acted with perfect legal propriety in his decision, but it seems to us that in the case of so young offenders, inquiry and censure should go behind the individual culprits. Where are the parents or guardians of these precociously evil boys? At what school have they been educated, or in what society brought up ? The parents who, whether by directly evil example, or by sheer neglect, have trained of suffered to be trained so pestilential a brood, are the deadly enemies of the community, and merit the sharpest punishment. If the boys have not been at school for years, as seems likely when at 15 they develop into such monsters, is there not some serious hitch in our system of education? And with quite as much reason the same question might be asked if it turn out that they have been attending school. At all events it would be useful to get at the facts. But the precocity in evil displayed by these two boys suggests above all the influence of vicious if not criminal associations. Unpleasant as the admission may be, we have to face the fact of the existence amongst us of a degraded class, whose business is vicious indulgence, whose ministers are drink and lust and obscene literature, and into whose all devouring vortex our youth of both sexes are being drawn. Most of the men brought up for obscene language are drunkards and most of the women prostitutes , and the two wretched boys, who can scarcely yet be touched by either vice, are in a fair way of yielding to both. Possibly the excess of this evil has something to do with the freedom from restraint, and impatience of law and order to which men are tempted in new settlements, and especially in climates such as ours, and some amelioration may be looked for as the country becomes more thickly settled, and the reign of order more pronounced. Heavier punishments, especially for hardened cases and involving longer seclusion from society, might have a salutary effect were our gaols all that they should be. Considering the contagious character of the vice, it should be sternly punished at our public schools, where parents cannot select their children's companions, and a repetition of the offence should entail exclusion. And above all, parents themselves—we speak to that large majority of them who, as we hope, have then children's welfare at heart—should not only keep their own lips pure, but, so far as their supervision can extend, carefully select for their children such society as shall confirm them in the abhorrence of all that tends to the obscene.

The Brisbane Courier 15 March 1888,