“£500,000 Needed To Solve Delinquency”

Press, Volume XCIX, Issue 29339, 19 October 1960, Page 12

“£500,000 Needed To Solve Delinquency”

"The Press” Special Service

WELLSUGnnXi, October 18. “It would require the expenditure of £lOO,OOO tor five years to really settle the delinquent problem in New Zealand,” says the director of the Hutt Valley Youth Club (Mr H. T. Robinson) in a report circulated to all youth clubs in Wanganui, Manawatu, Wairarapa and Wellington. The circular is likely to form the basis of a report to be prepared making certain recommendations to the Government on the question of youth clubs and delinquency. The £lOO,OOO a year represented about double the effort in the original plan for physical wellbeing in this country, says Mr Robinson. "Physical education today has as its aim, the education of the whole man: brain, body and personality. We have in our welfare and education services talented "staff” hamstrung by the system, which leaves the delinquent untouched until he or she is picked up by the law. There is a body of probation officers and child welfare people, whose exceptional work passes unrecognised by the public—salaries are hopelessly low, and they are restricted in the amount of preventative work they can do. "20 Years Behind” "We are in one of the critical phases of our social history and already 20 years behind the United Kingdom in youth services. Our Governments have deliberately neglected this unpopular phase of government spending and follow the United Kingdom we will not,” Mr Robinson says.

"The Education Department is the body corresponding to the Ministry of Education in England, and it has failed in its responsibility to the people of New Zealand, just as we, through Parlament have not given it adequate direction or funds to cope with the delinquent problem. "In New Zealand we have an education system which touches almost every child and, from 14 years upwards, it would be a simple matter to note the young-

sters who would not conform and pass this register to the district youth officer whose staff would then help them at home and at work.

"As a voluntary youth leader trained under the youth committee of the National Council of Churches schemes, I can testify as to its value. The leadership and understanding of the YM.C.A. and Y.W.C.A. specialists is outstanding, but they are unable to function in the wider field, because of their heavy commitments in the orthodox field. The sympathy and devotion to youth of these people is wide enough to meet the need of the unconforming youth, if there was a corresponding response from the Education Department towards youngsters who leave formal education and enter industry. “Many young people get little help at home and seem untalented at school. The harassed headmasters of large schools simply cannot spare the time for these problem children and often expel them. British Practice “The Education Ministry in the United Kingdom is charged with the task of training leaders, constructing halls and youth centres, paying youth leaders, and subsidising the myriads of activities carried on for youth in England and Wales. “What can we in New Zealand say to these things. It is a foreign language to us. Our eyes are focussed on customs duties, income tax rebates, higher wage claims, bigger and brighter borstals. Despite seven years of screaming headlines, government inquiries, and unending complaints, we have made little headway against apathy towards delinquency. "Most citizens are indifferent to these ‘young Kiwis,’ of their own blood, and cannot know the callous treatment many have had in their own homes! The untold heartaches that are caused by parents who refuse to discipline themselves and their children in a reasonable manner,” Mr Robinson says. “I gave local authorities and

Government a true warning seven years ago and it gives me no satisfaction to see it come to

pass,” says Mr Robinson. "I know these youngsters can be reached, befriended, and set up in the world as reasonable citizens, if we abandon the policy of Tm all right, Jack.’ In four years New Zealand has doubled its Borstal population (at £5OO a person). This is an expensive proposition for the taxpayer, and negative all the way! “A large sum spent in training leaders and doing positive youth work for the non-conformers will enable the whole educational and penal system to take up its functional role in modern society,” he says.