TOO SMALL.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIX, Issue 135, 10 June 1938, Page 8

TOO SMALL.

WELFARE STAFF.

MAGISTRATE'S COMMENT. POSITION AT BOYS' HOME. I , *he opinion that the staff of the Child Welfare Department in Auckland was too small to cope with the amount of work thrown upon them was expressed at a sitting of the Children's Court to-day by Mr. W. K. MeKean, S.M., when a report on the Department's activities for the year was submitted. Mr. MeKean asked why there was no reference in the report to the boys' home at Mount Albert. The child welfare officer, Mr. J. S. Cupit. in reply to the inquiry, said that there had been no housemaster at Mount Albeit since October, 1937, and that there was no matron and there had been none since tlie middle of February. In order to carry on the work his assistants were devoting a great deal of their time outside of office hours to supervising the home. They started work at (i.30 a.m. and finished at a late hour. "Unsatisfactory." This was a most unsatisfaet jry state of affairs, A! r. MeKean commented. There were apparently 100 young people who had been under supervision by the Court and 130 State wards licensed out. The staff of three assistants was quite inadequate for the work, apart from the extra work entailed in looking after the Mount Albert Boys' Home.

Later in proceedings, when an application for the committal of a child was made, the magistrate asked how many female children were under supervision, and was informed that there were almost tiOO. They were distributed in institutions and orphanages and had to be visited from time to time, though the supervisor had only four assistants to attend to the work.

In stating that there should be a larger staff in the interests of the children, Mr. MeKean said it was of very great importance that people of a competent type should be engaged.