CAUSE OF DETERIORATION 67 



G , aged eighteen, and D , aged twenty, 



for attempting a burglary and shooting a police- 

 man, whom they nearly killed. The Chief 



Justice pointed out that G was released from 



gaol on September 16, and only three nights 

 later, on the 19th, he shot the policeman. On 

 the afternoon of the day that he shot the police- 

 man he went to the races, having before he went 

 stated that he had two sure things on. At the races 

 he told a witness that he had lost money, and ' would 

 have to pull something down to-night ' ; and he 

 accordingly engaged in ' the pulling down some- 

 thing ' — that is, he attempted the burglary for which 

 he was tried and punished. This is therefore a 

 threefold corroboration — a corroboration of Sir 

 George Clarke's warning as to the evils of gambling, 

 a corroboration of my assertion that 'sprinting' 

 leads to gambling, and a corroboration of my views 

 as to the precocity of Australian youth, illustrated by 

 the readiness of both old men and young to sit at 

 the feet of stable-boys in order to get a ' tip.' 



Is it any wonder that this precocity in the babes 

 and sucklings, and this readiness of their elders to 

 sit at their feet for a ' tip,' should develop in them 

 so high an intelligence in a wrong direction that 

 the Chief Justice was led to say that ' the old hands 

 in crime frequently admit that they have been com- 

 pletely outclassed by their more juvenile comrades, 

 whom they regard with mixed feelings of admira- 

 tion and amazement .'* 



5—2 



