CHILDREN'S COURT.

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 279, 24 November 1928, Page 11

CHILDREN'S COURT.

EPIDEMIC OF THEFT.

BY WELL-DRESSED BOYS.

MOSTLY FROM ONE SCHOOL.

After a morning spent in the Child-1 ren's Court one is compelled to admit, that something more than education is needed to turn out good citizens, and one realises that there must be something lacking in the lives of some young Aucklanders. Perhaps Mrs. Ferner, one of the magistrates at this very un-Court-liko Court, put her finger on one defect when she asked a mother if the boy in tho case played games. The mother replied no, and said she kept her children at home to look after them. (The question cropped up over the matter of supervision.) Mrs. Ferner said it was a pity the boy did not get out to play games. "Children must play games," she added. Another thing that struck an onlooker was that it was obviously not want that drove the boys to commit the crimes. They were without exception all well dressed, some of them too neatly dressed for boys of their age; one felt they should have been less exact, their hair should not have been so well oiled, their ties should have been a little less dandified, and the handkerchief in the top breast pocket should not have been showing just tho correct amount. And they were not devoid of manners. One lad, although ho was sent to the Borstal, politely opened the door for his mother and stood while she preceded him out of Court. Yet another thing that struck one this morning at the Unity Hall, where the Court is held, was that most of the thirty-three boys whose names were on tho charge sheet came from the one school, according to the statement of Constable Kelly. This fact weighed with Mr. E. C. Cutten, the presiding magistrate, and in one case ho ordered a boy of tender years to be sent to another school to get away from the obviously evil influence of the other members of the gang, if the word can be used. Nearly all the charges were concerned with theft, breaking into houses, taking motor cars, breaking gas and _ electric fittings with stones or shanghais. Cigarettes, bicycles, mineral waters, sweets and money were the things most generally figuring in the charges. One boy of thirteen had 49 charges against him; another had 33 charges; another 18; and another had 17. The money value of the things stolen or dai r.ged ranged from £62, £14, £10 down • the price of a "soft drink." In all cases but one the parents (who generally camo into the Court) apparently knew nothing about their boys' burglarious habits. One of the Court officials said he crimes were ofteii committed at lunch time, or after school hours. Tho methods of the lads varied from those of a very little thin fellow who used to crawl into a shop on his hands and knees, even when the people were in the back, and steal things; up to those of a lad of fifteen years of age, who showed an unexpectedly precociousness in crime. Ho wrote an amazing letter to another lad in the country, telling him how they could live by robbing °what he called "dumps," giving details about places ho intended to rob, saying how simple it was, and writing generally in the strain one would associate with a hardened, criminal, wellversed in breaking and entering, rather than of a school boy enjoying the advantages of a specially thought-out system of "higher education. In this lad's case the police oflicer produced a sort of visor made out of black cloth, with holes for the eyes. Obviously the youngster had got his ideas from books or papers devoted to a most undesirable method of presenting crime. ' In this ense the charge included the, conversion of a motor car, breaking and entering a warehouse with a key stolen six months before, theft of a bicycle, breaking into telephone boxes, and damage which included throwing pats of butter at the roof, after helping themselves to what they wanted, there being more than one boy associated with the episodes. The money value of goods and damage was £02.

In this case Mr. AV. J. Campbell, the probation officer, said he had a duty to the public as well as the lad, and recommended sending him to the Borstal for three years, a course which the Court adopted. The boy to whom the letter referred to abpvo was sent, came down from the country in answer, and he was before the- Court for being concerned in seventeen of the charges. The father in this case quite approved the Court's I decision to send the lad to the Borstal.

And so the cases followed one another, I tho Court using its own discretion whether the yongsters just starting out on the wrong road should be admonished and put under the care of the welfare officer under tho Act which brought the Court into existence, or whether they should be put under the care of the probation officer, or sent to the Borstal. The only case other than that of a juvenile was when the mother of one of the boys was charged with having received £5 worth of cigarettes knowing them to have been dishonestly obtained. She said she merely kept them until they were wanted. Constable Kelly pointed out that she kept them until the boys asked for them. One of the boys was only 14, and that was against the law. There was something wrong in a home where such things could go on. Mr. Cutten said it was probable the evidence would not justify a conviction, but at the same time he told the mother sho must have known there was something wrong. He trusted the whole incident would be a lesson to her to be more careful in future.

All the morning the Court sat heaving case after case, the ages of the boys ranging from 17 down to 13.

"Tho boy is placed under supervision for two years, the father is ordered to refund £14, and I trust he will give you a jolly good hiding," was one of Mr. Cutten's 'pronouncements, and after listening for nearly three hours the onlooker could not help having an idea that that was about the best punishment for every case that was called this morning.