f those
committed to it.

Lombroso speaks of the system as a practical application of the results
of the science of Criminology.

Should the system be adopted in other countries, it would need to be so
translated that it would accord with the traditions and customs of the
people.

FOOTNOTES:

[1] It is generally supposed that such a system cannot act as a
deterrent to crime. The American delegates to the International Prison
Congress (held in Paris in 1895) declared that the obligation imposed
upon the prisoners, in such institutions, to raise themselves by mental
as well as by industrial labour, into higher grades as a necessary
condition for liberation, is felt by many of them, to involve so much
exertion, that they would rather be consigned to some ordinary prison,
where self-improvement is not specially enforced. This system, they
declared, was more deterrent than was generally supposed.

[2] Of some 13,000 criminals who have passed through the Reformatory,
the number known definitely to have returned to crime is a little less
than 1 per cent. of the whole!

Chapter X.

CONCLUSION.

The reader will have formed his own conclusion. He may conclude that the
author has a sentimental affection for the criminal and would have all
disturbers of the public peace treated with more compassion than the
hard-working and honest labourer. But that reader will have jumped to
his conclusion from his preconceived prejudices. The reformation of the
criminal is no chimera, it has been undertaken for thirty years and
every year has seen better results. The results for 1903 (86 per cent.
of reforms) ought to convince the most sceptic that the reformation of
the criminal is the true aim for society to pursue.

Another reader may ask why, if all these results are so good, does not
the Government adopt some such system as the Elmira one instead of
continuing the present obsolete penal system. The New York State
Government experiences a difficulty in finding, for their reformatory
staff, men who will undertake their work with a real sense of mission.

Nor is this the only difficulty. If New Zealand is going to undertake
the reformation of its criminals and to restore them to society as
honest and industrious persons, society itself must be prepared to drop
its prejudices and suspicions and receive the men at their present
worth, and not forever stamp them as outcasts. Nothing less, then, is
required than an earnest des