One suggestion made to the Committee was that saving and thrift should be encouraged, or that this might be enforced through the Children's Court in cases where it is found that offenders have fallen into criminal immorality through having more money than suffices to pay the reasonable necessaries of life. While the powers of the Children's Court might be extended or used for this purpose in extreme cases where adolescents are brought before the Court, the best help can come from wise action by parents to prevent their powers of direction and control being undermined through young persons having too much freedom and too many of the material things which are not necessary for their well-being.
XV. The Law and Morality
(1) History of the Law Regarding Morality
At no time in the history of the British Commonwealth have Parliaments or the law-courts endeavoured to impose a system or code of morality on the people. Men are not required by the governing powers to observe the moral law, any more than they are required to attend Divine worship. But Parliament, in the shaping of legislation, and the Judges in the administration of justice, have frequently had regard to that indefinable sense of right and wrong which becomes implanted in the human breast. Furthermore, the law, while not coercing any one into following a particular course of moral conduct, has, nevertheless, always been careful to restrain people from acting in such a way as may cause offence to those who do observe the principles of religion or of morality.
Offences against religion (for example, blasphemy and disturbing public worship), and offences against decency and morality (for example, indecent exposure, indecent publications, and prostitution) are strongly reprehended.
In determining what conduct on the part of an individual should be condemned the law has always endeavoured to maintain a balance between freedom of the individual and the rights of the community not to be harmed by the exercise of that freedom.
The law is not interested in sin, or even immorality, but it is vitally interested in the effects of them. A person may stay away from church, but he must not scoff at the Holy Scriptures. He may bathe in the nude, but not at a public beach or near where persons are passing. A human model may be posed for an artist, but must not be exhibited in a shop window.
One other feature of the law regarding morals is that there are some things which adults are not restrained from doing but which the law will not suffer to be done by minors. Common examples are found in the restraints which are imposed on children smoking, or entering upon premises open for "drinking" or betting.
Similarly, through reason and experience, the law has found it necessary to set some limits on the right of an individual to do what he likes with his own person. The community has an interest in the life of every citizen. More particularly may this be said to be so when the State spends much money on the education and health of the people. Suicide has always been wrongful; attempts at suicide are therefore punishable, partly because the State has an interest in maintaining human life, and partly because suicide is a result of sin and a breach of morality.