Couple Prohibited From Adopting Korean Family

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30919, 27 November 1965, Page 3

Couple Prohibited From Adopting Korean Family

(New Zealand Press Association) AUCKLAND, November 26. Mr and Mrs I. M. Courtney, a Titirangi couple who wanted to bring four Korean orphans to live with them, have been refused permission for the second time by the Minister of Immigration (Mr Shand).

But Mr and Mrs Courtney are determined to keep trying. Mrs Courtney said today: “We can’t just sit around and watch the misery of these children.”

Mr Shand said that in spite of the couple’s humane gesture in wishing to adopt the children they could not be allowed to bring them into the country.

“When children are adopted into a strange environment and get over their association with their own cultural background, experience has shown that the risk of failure is high,” he said. Mr and Mrs Courtney are building a large home on their 22 acres in Titirangi. They want it to be an interdenominational sanctuary for needy children. The Courtneys began sponsoring the Korean family two years ago. The mother and six children were living in a mud hut roofed with building paper. The two elder children, Yung-Sim and Myong-Jae, were sent out to work 12 hours a day, each earning the equivalent of id. The mother, as well as looking after the children, hawked fish to bring in a little more money. The Courtneys, as official sponsors, sent £36 a year, as well as parcels, extra gifts of money, and tea chests full of clothing and food. Parcels and letters often took months to arrive, and a tea chest sent by the Courtneys in July, 1964, arrived at its destination ih Seoul in Julv this year. The death of the Korean mother in September last year brought more difficulties for the family. The eldest girl, aged 17, had to stay home to mind the children. Three-year-old Myung-Suk, the youngest, who caught a chill in the fierce Korean winter, died in August. Four days after the mother’s death the hut was washed away in floods. In December, Yung-Sim wrote to Mrs Courtney: “I am learning how to sew to make the children’s dresses. I am afraid of this winter. If I have a sewing machine I would be very happy.”

This letter reached New Zealand months later and in two weeks the Courtneys had found a hand-sewing machine, packed it, and sent it on its way.

“We will be very lucky if it reaches the children by this Christmas,” Mrs Courtney said today. “This is one of the reasons why it is so difficul to care for the children from here.” Staying Behind The Courtneys think that the eldest boy should be left in Korea as he is settled there. “Sending parcels and cash only partly treats the problem,” Mr Courtney said. “It most definitely does not cure it.” The Courtneys would be quite happy for the children to return to Korea when their education has been completed. The Courtneys have five children of their own, two of whom are married. They bought the land in Titirangi about two years ago. “We chose the land with children in mind,” Mrs Courtney said. “There are plenty of hills and hollows and nooks and crannies for them to play in.” The Courtneys have 12 goats, 12 sheep, two heifers, geese and ducklings. “We give away vegetables from our garden each year,” Mrs Courtney said. “We could just about provide for the children off the land now.” Mr Courtney served in the Korean War. Mr Shand said that the risk of adoption failing was very high even when foster parents acted both with sympathy and understanding. “I respect the motives of the people vho are anxious to help those living in distressing circumstances, but I sometimes wish the motives of those of us who have the responsibility for managing the policies of this country were treated with similar respect,” he said. The Minister said he had not personally dealt with the Courtney case, but had received a report yesterday from the Immigration Department. “The application is a clear contravention of the policies which successive governments in New Zealand have adopted for many years,” he said. Both he and the department tried to administer the policies in a “humane and decent manner.” A Remuera woman who adopted a girl from Hong

Kong two years ago does not agree with Mr Shand. Mr and Mrs C. E. Malpas took two-year-old Marie Therese into their family early in 1963. The adoption was arranged by the Catholic immigration committee of the St. Vincent de Paul Society. “She has settled in wonderfully and we haven’t had any troubles. She is just one of the family,” Mrs Malpas said today. “It is true that she found things very strange at first but she was speaking English in no time. She is very placid and obedient and remembers everything she is told.”

I Marie Therese and Mrs Malpas’ daughter, who is only three months older, started school together in August and go off happily together each day. Before they adopted Marie Therese, Mr and Mrs Malpas talked the subject over with child welfare authorities. “We have never had any regrets,” she said. “She’s a very good little girl and fits in well. There might be hundreds or even thousands of children like her over there and if we can help them by bringing them here, I’m all for it,” said Mrs Malpas. Mr and Mrs Malpas have two sons and six daughters of their own. No Problems Mr A. J. Forsman, headmaster of the Beresford Street School, at which 87 per cent of the pupils are not European, said there was no doubt that children of different racial backgrounds could and did mix socially. “We try as far as possible to give them a full life and to explain their responsibility to the country in which they live but there are no differences between them,” he said. Two boys from the remote highlands of New Guinea who had been going to the school each afternoon had been completely accepted by other children and had been very happy with them. In Tokoroa, two-year-old Nikki, from Thailand, is the adopted son of Mr and Mrs G. I. Short. “He has settled down extremely well,” said Mr Short today. Mr Short, a chemist, and his wife spent two years in Thailand with Volunteer Service Abroad. They used to see Nikki at the Übol Orphanage and were able to adopt him and bring him home.

“In a place like Tokoroa, where there are people of many races, a child from another country will not be a curiosity when he grows up,” said Mr Short today. “If you brought say, 100 children at a time, and put them in a community there

might be some difficulties but an individual would have no trouble whatever.” Mr Short recently went back to Thailand and brought back a little girl, Angela, aged three, to become a member of the family of Mr and Mrs J. T. Taylor, also of Tokoroa. “The way she has settled down is almost miraculous,” said Mr Short. Angela is now the tenth child in the Taylor family. Nikki, however, has no brothers and sisters of his own age at home because Mr and Mrs Short's family has grown up.