PARENTS BLAMED

Dominion, Volume 35, Issue 6, 2 October 1941, Page 4

PARENTS BLAMED

Increase In Juvenile Crime The increase in juvenile crime was attributed to the fact that parents allowed their children to see unsuitable films and read American gangster magazines and encouraged them to gamble, said Mrs. Hugh Kasper, district president, when addressing delegates at the annual district convention of the W.O.T.U. in Auckland this week. Parents were also neglecting to send their children to Sunday schools, some of which were almost empty. The rising generation, she said, constituted a challenge to every right thinking man and woman. Bible teaching should’ be instilled in the mind of the child.

Referring to gambling, Mrs. Kasper said the air was filled today with cries against waste, and with appeals for more economical and simpler modes of living. Side by side with this antiwaste propaganda, however, was inducement to gambling which was one of the most prolific sources of waste. “Just when is our Prime Minister going to face up to the seriousness of the evil in New Zealand, morally and economically?” she asked. “Will anyone dare to assert that New Zealand has not given way to the habit at the expense of other considerations involved in the present international struggle?” Resolutions were discussed dealing with the increased proportion of preservatives in food, the opening hours of wet canteens in military camps, the acoommodation for boarders in licensed hotels, the number of race days allowed in the Dominion, and the sale of raffle and art union tickets by children.