INEBRIATES' HOMES.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIII, Issue 290, 7 December 1932, Page 5

INEBRIATES' HOMES.

COLLECTION OF FEES. RECOUPING DEPARTMENT. (By Telegraph.—Parliamentary Reporter.) WELLINGTON, this day. Authority for the Justice Department to collect fcee from inmates in certified inebriates' or reformatory homes, ie contained in the Reformatory Inetitntions Amendment Bill, introduced in the House yesterday. According to the provisions of the bill, justices of the. peace will have power to call upon inmates or their relatives to ehow cause why they should not be made the subject of an order for maintenance, and if the magistrate who hears the complaint is satisfied that, having regard to all the circumstanced, an inmate or relative bae failed or intends to fail to make adequate provision for the cost, he may issue an order for the payment towards the cost of future maintenance of a reasonable sum up to £1 2/6 a week for the period of detention. With similar discretion, if the magistrate is satisfied as to defendant's ability to pay, he may order the payment of past maintenance up to £50, in addition to incidental expenses, including cost of transportation. These latter orders may be made notwithstanding the death of an inmate or his discharge from the institution, and neither inmate nor relative need (be resident in New Zealand.

Orders made under the legislation will be deemed to 'be maintenance orders under the Destitute Persons Act. Liability as to maintenance will riot be affected by agreements, but magistrates will have'discretionary power to refuse applications, having regard to the existence of agreements and all the circumetances. Answering questions in the House, the Minister of Justice, Mr. Cobbe, said the bill merely enabled the Department to collect feee from inmates in Rotoroa and Pakatoa Islands in cases where they were in a position to pay. In the past the Department had paid the Salvation Army, which controlled the institutions, £1 a* week for each inmate, and the loss last year amounted to £1700. Some were in a position to pay, and collections from them had not been made previously. The bill was read a first time.