10 TlMEHRI. 
girls between the ages of 10 and 17, whose morals 
are those of a Yahoo, and whose language would dis- 
grace a bargee. I said " if they live" for I have often 
heard the late Dr. MANGET say that three-fourths of the 
children under twelve months that die in this colony, are 
done to death by the ignorance, negle6t or brutality of 
their parents. There can be no doubt that the prevalent 
relations of the sexes leads to a great development of 
infanticide ; not perhaps the deliberate slaying of in- 
fants by violence, but the no less sure though more 
lingering death by starvation and negle6t. Abortion too 
is extensively practised by a certain class of unmarried 
coloured women to whom children would be a trouble 
and disgrace. 
Adulteration is another fa6tor in the manufacture of 
criminals, being a fruitful cause of disease and drunken- 
ness which are parents of crime. During my short 
tenure of office as Attorney-General I introduced an 
Ordinance to prevent adulteration, which became law as 
No. 11, 1882, but its provisions have never been carried 
out, and our labouring classes, the backbone of the 
country, are being poisoned by villainous mixtures sold 
in the retail Spirit Shops. The wealthier classes are not 
more favoured as the most filthy stuff is sold in some of 
our stores as butter or lard, whilst milk is delivered at 
our doors mixed with water to at least 30 per cent, of 
its bulk. Whilst the Commissariat enforces that the 
proper strength of the rum be maintained, it pays no 
attention to its purity. Rum in its natural state is the 
purest and most wholesome of drinkable spirits but 
under the hands of the Portuguese and Chinese shop- 
keepers it becomes a noxious and intoxicating compound. 
