1 “(nD )
2 affords peculiar facilities. Female infanticide is so secret and domestic a
3 Cessation of infanti. crime, that its prevalence, or otherwise, is hard to
4 cide. . be predicated. If not extinguished, it is verging
5 upon extinction. We have the concurrent testimony, both of Local
6 Officers and of the Native Tribes, not themselves concerned in this mat-
7 ter, and therefore quite impartial to the effect that the Daughter-killing
8 Tribes have ceased from this infanticide, or nearly ceased. ‘Police
9 measures, without being inquisitorial, have been effective, and many-
10 female children have been preserved in families where, a few years ago,
11 , their existence would have been considered a bane anda stigma, The
12 ‘two incentives to’ this secret crime, namely, pride of birth and pride of
13 purse, have been nearly removed : facilities for intermarriage with other
14 Tribes have mitigated the difficulty which some families felt in disposing
15 of their daughters, The sumptuary rules regulating marriage expenses
16 which are now generally obeyed with fidelity, save the father of the
17 bride from being beggared on this account.
18 15. As regards the crimes of the middle class, such as theft, eae
19 . Diminution oftheftana Of ® milder form, and cattle-lifting, there is a
20 of cattle-lifting, decrease perceptible for the first time in 1855. It
21 has been heretofore supposed that a Government, all powerful to suppress
22 overt and violent crime, might not so easily cope with minor offences,
23 which elude the grasp of a great Administration. It has also been
24 thought, that the criminal classes, debarred from the more exciting branch
25 of their profession, find a vent in that direction which is less likely to be
26 severely noticed, A belief has therefore gained ground, that theft with-
27 out aggravating circumstances is destined to prevail -under British Rule.
28 But happily the statistics militate against this idea, . for they show, that.
29 an impression is Pogue to be made upon even these nominal offences,
30 Theft. Bur; 5 Coals Brine:
31 1854 wg 0.) d,587 | 4,218 8,177
32 1855 00. bee cee 9,874 3,498 _ 6,851
33 That cattle-lifting will still further decrease may be expected, though
34 it can hardly be quite eradicated in the present generation. For in those
35 Districts, which, with their pastoral wilds and wandering herds, offer faci-
36 lities for the offence, the most stringent Police measures have been adopt-
37 ed, and will be prosecuted vigorously, till the people of those tracts shall’
38 learn, that every man’s hand is not to be against his neighbour's cattle.