"THESE LITTLE ONES."

Auckland Star, Volume XLIII, Issue 145, 18 June 1912, Page 7

"THESE LITTLE ONES."

TEE LAW AND CHILD CKI2CTHAXS. JUSTICE TEMPERED WITH MERCYHOURS TN A CHILDREN'S COURT. (From Our Lady Correspondent.)

LONDON, April 12.

Anything presenting a more brilliant contrast than the managing of the Ciiildren's Court at Tower Bridge Police Court in London and foreign methods of administering justice it would be impossible to find, as the writer, fresh from a recent visit to the black marble magnificence and terrifying surroundings of a continental law court, could not but think when sitting for an afternoon this week with the children's probation officer in London, watching the tempering of justice with such sweet mercy as Portia would have envied. In the first place, the room in itself holds small suggestion of the dread aspect of a conventional police court, distempered as it is in cheerful green and white with polished oak seats and desks and even a row of hearty-looking pot plants on the wooden canopy above the Magistrate's seat. All the police, too, who gave their evidence against the youthful culprits one knew to be such only when, in taking the oath, they gave their occupation, "Constable No. "

The offender, instead of ascending steps to a dock, need only stand by a table, not infrequently, if it- i.s a little chap or a little girl, with the kindly hand of an official on it. shoulder to give courage. Then. Loo in the proceedings there is a regard for little people's feelings that would have made Oliver Twist's cy-?s start from their spheres with amazement, for. to the onlooker, it appears that every possible effort is made—its.

indeed, is the present Magistrate's aim— not only to, keep the offenders themselves out of prison, but also to put a stop to the increasing practice of. sending children away from their parents (too often not very admirabLe as such) to tbe parentless regime oj an industrial school.

Above all. the golden and glorious rule of all English law courts that none, is guilty till proved such, in contradistinction to the foreign idea of counting all guilty till proved innocent, is apparent on all sides as if it were some invisible spirit of tender care hovering over all that takes place. Without. Ln the entrance hall, something of the tragedy in which one is strikes home, for here arc stalwart men in blue guarding the" entrance and questioning all who enter; and here, too, in sombre ill-garbed groups, those waiting to give their evidence and others to He tried. A suffocating catch in ones throat comes with the knowledge that all these people are here, accused or concerned with some crime or misdemeanour, and could not leave this spot if they wanted to.

Hardly a -woman but was weeping bitto. ri t y or whose face bore sears or tears, save for some whose expression was a thousand times worse for want of tears —some of the fathers cried, too, but. somehow there no pity seemed called out. If there are kisses sacred and profane, iheTe are tears lroly or contemptible, as was proved later.

Within the splotless precincts of the Children's Court, since it was not yet two o'clock, silence reigned. In the interval the .senior lady probationer officer—a sweet-faced and voiced woman, whose widely-known influence one could instantly realise—talked over some of the cases to be tried. Sometimes there are as many a.s forty; this afternoon, at Easter-time, there were only a few. EVIL NOT UNMIXED WITH GOOD. "Unless the parents are proved absolutely nnfit to have the care of cveai their own children." ."ho explained, "we set our faces resolutely against sending them away from home, even to a. good school or -reformatory. Excelent as these institutions are, and thankful as ye are that they exist, the evils that the children lose a-e not always the only attributes.

"One can tell that by any 'afternoon spent in the Enst End, where brothers and sisters, from the most wretched hovels, are to be seen nursing- and looking after the babies or the old folk, and where, however rough and tirm-ble the regime, the children do at least develop unselfishness and kindness iv piace of the one hard object—fretting on by -tbemselves—that is all an institution has in at to teach individuals."'

The wide extremes that on<> comes across in the poorest districts—the woman who will work her tinkers to the bone for an ungrateful child or husband, the one who will appear less interested in her own, more disgusted with it in fact than an animuJ —prompted the question."How do parents take tho decisions of the magistrate ■ — supposing, for instance, he orders the child to ibe taken away from the parents''"

"Some of them actually send their children out to be found wandering and taken charge of by the police. Others bring -absolute dots of children that they profess to be quite unable to control— they'll be up to all manner of dodges, in fact, to 'be rid of the burden of the poor little things."

Now the magistrate entered, his clerk the clerk of 'the court, and several officers, the door was opened and in stentorian tones repeated in the distaence and again—Jike orders given by the captain of a ship—the name of the first culprit was called.

Enter a white-faced wizened 'hoy of twelve, followed by a father to whom the peu of a Dickens only could do jas-Uc-e, so bloated and ugly a creature he. blubbering hideously. Gambling was the crime—tbe youngster had been caught- red-banded playing pitch and toss.

Warned by the magistrate, who required a promise of the father that he would watch over the child better, fined half-a-crown or one. day. The mother only, a little half-dazed and very deal woman in black, entered with the next offender, also v boy, also caught gambling. Special circumstances were pleaded. Half-a-crown or one day. A TRAVESTY OP MOTHERHOOD. "Next a woman seemed only to come in, so small the atom beside her—then we saw there were two. An official, suddenIv grown huge, took the little boy in hand, the mother —strange to use the word of sueli a travesty—in flaring green and a hat as impudpnt as her face, dragging a smaller child' still after her. in low tones so that one conld hardly he.ir was the accusation ip-j-de. She was living with a man not her husband, and the little fair-haired morsrl wa-s not being provided for. Would she consent ti his being brought up in a home? the magistrate asked with a kindly gravity. •'Certainly. Glad to." ''Ch_rcJi?" the clerk asked.

j "Omrch of England,* she iresTrondfid "To be sent to tbe Field tLane Industrial School till Ire's sixteen —Church, of j England," the magistrate said smiling at the child, who, at four years, didn't appear to -care what became of him.

An hour later, as the writer passed through tbe entrance hall, the mother, ceasing her sprightly banter of a policeman, kissed the departing boy with a loud smashing kiss, jerked bis colhvr into a more crooked state than before, and resumed her conversation as if she'd never seen her little son before.

Now came tbe opposite state of things —a problem for the magistrate to unravel. In tbe Court., giving testimony for himself and his son, a specimen one felt, to use the old expressive New Zealand phrase, one would not iwsint to touch with a pitchfork—a man really filthy, yet with not such a bad face after all. A tattered coat sleeve did duty for a handkerchief, and he wept with a fierceness intensely pathetic, trying every now and again to interrupt, the young officer taking the oath in the mechanical way the police do.

-Had tip ibefore, -this old rascal it appeared for not talcing proper care of the little red-faced untended urchin unconcernedly munching an apple and regarding the magistrate, with a sort of serious inattention.

Unfit to have the guardianship of a child, the officer asserted, and described the disgusting state of tbe "home" of the little chap.

"You were up before one. two months ago, you fcnow," .he magistrate said ge.iUJv.

'Yus, 1 know I was, Sir, but give's another try. .Vie and my son 'II look aift.er "im. We don't want 'im to lie taken away." Here an angry brushin"' away of tears -with the useful coat sleeve, "f can look after 'im better than the others. 1 —1" -here grief was too much for him and no words would come.

Then .=-ndden-ly -in a. voice of tremendous appeal: "Don't take 'im away from mc, Sir."

"We had all that last time, Sir, and (he child's just as bad as ever," put in a policeman wearily. "Well. 1 'aye -looked after him," burst from the man. answered only 'by an expressive look from the officer. Another frenzied appeal to the magistrate, who asked. "He's got no mother?"' "No." and another sniff. "Well, you are a puzzle. I don't at all •v.-aut to take the child away from you, •but he's a nice little chap and you're keeping him in a disgracefully 'filthy home. "I gave you a chance before and you haven't improved in the least."

"Gae's another drance."' and a fresh outburst of tears.

"Oh. very well," the magistrate said. ''Put look here, you earn 12/6 a week and your son b/, and if ] let you have the boy back you two nunet keep yourselves clean as well as the. child. Will yon try?"

"Right you are, Sir. we will. Cod Wes< you. Sir," in a kind of humble gratitude, and -before one could say •Mack-' the burly old man had darted forward and grabbed the child fiercely in his arnifl ami left the Court, what time (he sentence "adjourned for two months" was .being passed from officer to officer.

Several other rases came up of a minor i nierest.

Regarding remand homes, mercy- has io he diluted with a reasonable amount of jus'uee and severity, the probation officer assented, in order to do away with tile idea— not unexpected when one remembers their upbringing-thai it is a comfortable sort of children's club Tn ■tins co_n_v.tion she. had an amusinstnry to retail. °

"A visitor making his wa.v to the remand home one day heard a. boy in rag." hailing his mate, whom he bad n()t feci ,or a week, "Hulk), 'Arrv! Where aye you 'been t" -I've been tip to the remand liom^' *on haven't got half a . spankinsuit on ! Where d you get it ?" S 'The old .bloke up at the home gave it mc. Yon pinch a cabbage off the linrrewben tbe copper* -looking, and the old bloke up there'll give you one, too "