REFUGE.

Evening Post, Volume LXXIII, Issue 50, 28 February 1907, Page 7

REFUGE.

A HALF-WAY HOUSE WANTED.. . POLICE RESCUE WORK. The provision of an intermediary between the prison cell and the Benevolent •and like institutions where social derelicts, lost children, and others requiring the protection of the police could obtain temporary accommodation, is a subjectrequiring attention. Frequently th© police are obliged to take care of feeble old people until such times as the ordinary charitable machinery can be put in motion—to care for lost children, children in transit from industrial schools in one part of the colony to the other, or it may be for persons picked out of the harbour, and the only quarters for them aro dark prison cells, unless some one afc the police station volunteers to take them into his or her private quarters, or in the case of children they are accommodated, in the watctohouse. It ia said 1 that in some parts of the colony shelter sheds, fitted with beds, are established, where respectable feeble people rescued from the streets may be accommodated, but in Wellington there is nothing of this description. Not very long ago some deaf and dumb mutes from th* North passed through Wellington, en Toute to Christchurch. One of the party— a boy of tjxiTteen— missed his companions in Cus-tomhouse-quay a few minutes before they ; embarked for the South. He -wandered into a 6ido street and lost himself. The officer in charge could not trace him, sa reported the matter to the police, and went South with the other members of the party. The little chap was eventually found by the police in Molesworth-street late the same night— Satu-rday nightlying asleep with his bundle o*f luggage arranged as a pillow under his head. He wae in a terrified miserable state when he found himself in charge of a constable, and was difficult to pacify even at the station. The question arose where was he to be accommodated? It was eventually settled by the waiter at the station taking; him into his quarters .and s&eing to him until he was sent South by the first boat. r ' Then agaiD a little girl, eleven years of age, from Auckland, required attention. She became discontented at the house of her friends here, and -went to a hotel in the city to find an acquaintance of her father.- The friend happened to be out at th© time, and the hour being late, the licensee handed her over to the control of the police. Where was she to be accommodated? Recently a feeble old woman wandered off from the Ohiro Home and lost herself in the city. She also had to be provided for at the police station. The nenevolence of the police officials 'overcomes many cases, but there are others to which it cannot be applied, and the consequence is, respectable people have to be placed in cells. An intermediary establishment should be provided at or near the station, by fitting up one or two compartments with the ordinary equipment and accommodation of a private house. These rooms would then be available for children and respectable people who fall into i the hands of the police possibly through no fault of their own. The Benevolent Trustees have now an emergency ward at the Ohiro Home for derelicts, and according to the chairman, Rev. W. A. Evans, are in a position to receive urgent cases from the police, and accommodate them either in the ward or find outside accommodation for them until such time as the trustees can decid« what they shall do with them. This means that the police would only have to provide for people at the station for one night. It might be objected that the police have no right to detain a derelict at the station without preferring a charge against him. Technically speaking, the objection is sound. But it is submitted that the best service is often done by the police when they cast aside technicalities for the performance of social benefits. There is no reason at all why they should not take a destitute man to the station and accommodate him for the night without preferring a charge against h: n.j provided they bring him before the Magistrate next morning and state th« circumstances of the case. The alternative to this is to charge him with being an idle and a disorderly person, having insufficient means of support. Ho may be a respectable old man who has wander«d away from some rjrotecting influence, and to prefer this charge against him imposes a slur hard to remove.