Obituary MR J. BECK

Press, Volume CI, Issue 29726, 20 January 1962, Page 13

Obituary MR J. BECK

Mr John Beck, who died in Hamilton recently at the age of 78, was the first superintendent of the Child Welfare Division of ‘ the Education Department. He made a distinguished contribution to the development of social services for children, and while superintendent was at times a controversial figure because of his opposition to the then methods of caring for delinquent children. Mr Beck joined the Education Department as a clerical cadet. He rapidly gained promotion and became officer in charge of the industrial and special schools section of the department in 1915 at the age of 31.

His antipathy to the wholesale use of institutions for the care of delinquent children and his support for the development of the system of boarding out in foster homes of all except the seriously delinquent or handicapped, caused him to work toward the abolition of the industrial school system. Probably more than any other person, he was responsible for the closing of the three industrial schools, at Auckland, Dunedin and Burnham. The last-named, which was the largest, provided much of the background material for John A. Lee’s autobiographical novels "Children of the Poor" and “The Hunted.” In 1924 the Government sent Mr Beck to the United States and Canada to study dhild welfare methods. On his return he wrote a report which was used as the basis for the Child Welfare Act, 1925. When the act came into force in 1926 Mr Beck became the first Superintendent of Child Welfare. Among the innovations brought about by the act were children's courts and the appointment of child welfare officers.

111-health brought about Mr Beck’s premature retirement in 1938. In recent years he had been living at Ngaruawahia. His first wife died while he was still in office, and his widow was formerly Miss Mary Muir, the first woman inspector of child welfare in New Zealand.