JUVENILE MORAL DELINQUENCY

Press, Volume XC, Issue 27500, 6 November 1954, Page 6

JUVENILE MORAL DELINQUENCY

PRESBYTERIAN VIEW OF PROBLEM CHALLENGE SEEN TO CHURCH' (New Zealand Preu Association) WELLINGTON. November 5. .The attitude of the Presbyterian Church to the report of the committee of inquiry into juvenile moral delinquency was outlined at the General Assembly of the church tonight by the Rev. J. S. Somerville, convener of the gublie questions committee. Mr omerville was a member of the committee of inquiry. Mr Somerville said that, when the question of juvenile moral delinquency came before the country, it had caused quite a stir. Interest in it, however, might die down, and so far as the challenge was concerned, that would be a bad thing. He personally would have preferred to have seen an edited copy of the report attractively produced, and with the salient features emphasised, sent out to parents. The Government had been grateful for the assistance given by the church’s youth committee, said Mr Somerville. “The young people are as fbund and healthy as ever in past generations, if not more so,” said Mr Somerville. "Greater freedoms have brought greater dangers and greater responsibilities.”

Some blamed the present position on the new attitude to life, but these people lived in the past, he said, and when it came to the point, they agreed that the youth of today were as good and as morally sound as young people had been in the days of their own youth. "The problem was not a new one, but the committee discovered that it had been an increasing one, and in the last few years, too greatly increasing,” said Mr Somerville. “Modern conditions might be to blame, but not the schools.

"The fundamental things are said to be wrong radio, the pictures and some reading. But there are deeper causes —the unsettlement of our age. the result of two wars, and lack of faith in God.”

Mr Somerville said the report was a challenge to the community. “Before you have juvenile delinquency, you must have adult delinquency.” he said. “The position is a challenge to parents. But above all it is a challenge to us in the ahurch, and a challenge to our methods. The problem is not to reach out to those already within the church, but to show practical concern for those outside it.”