CHILD WELFARE

Evening Post, Volume CX, Issue 19, 22 July 1925, Page 5

CHILD WELFARE

DEALING WITH JUVENILE

CASES

THE WAYWARD, BACKWARD,

AND DELINQUENT

DISCUSSION ON THE BILL,

The proposals contained in the Child Welfare Bill were -under discussion in the House of Representatives last night. The measure is largely one of consolidation, but it also contains several new departures.

In moving the second reading of the Bill, the Minister (Sir James Parr) referred to the various branches of the work of the special schools branch of the Department of Education, which it is now proposed to rc-nme the Child Welfare Department. The objects of the Bill, he said, were to givo legislative sanction to the work of the special schools branch of the Department, and to constitute in proper fashion a children's Court. Sir James referred to the work of the present reception homes, and said that very often parents were to blame for the loose control exercised over their children. He was satisfied that the three thousand unfottunate ohildren in the reception homes were being well eared for. The new system was proving much more effective than the old system in force at the Burhham Industrial School.

Mr. F. Langstone (Waimarino) asked how many of the boys were being apprenticed to trades. The Minister replied that the number would ba about a thousand. The closest possible supervision was maintained i over the children who were boarded out. The problem of retarded and dull children was being dealt with through special classes. Eighty to 90 per cent, of the feeble-minded boys at the training institutions were soon able to go out into the world, and even better results were achieved with the girls. ■ "Are punishments inflicted?" inquired Mr. H. E. Holland (Buller). The Minister said that so far as he knew that policy had been entirely done away -with, and there was no harshness., THE MENTALLY AFFLICTED

Mr. Holland a«ked whether legislation would be introduced affecting mentally afflicted children.

Sir James replied that he /understood tha Minister of Health wa3 attending to that, and that if it was considered necessary, as a result of the recent Commission upon the feeble-minded, legislation would be brought down. Referring to delinquent children, he said that when they showed anti-social tendencies boys were taken to the Weraroa Farm, •which admitted boys of ages between 12 and IS. The farm was not a prison, but a training school, and 00 per cent, of recoveries were secured, as shown by the number who did not rotunj to the institution. The old type of institution "under strict discipline had now been done away with, and the principle had been adopted of placing the boys on their honour, a system in which he firmly believed. The girls were treated at Caversh&m.

Turning to the clause in the Bill providing for children's Courts, tho Minister said that it was proposed to remove the children from the usual Court atmosphere. It was desirable to divorce from their minds the idea of the police, tho Courts, and 'Judges, and to that end the business would bo conducted in private rooms apart from the usual Court. He hoped to secure the services of eminently suitable men as Magistrates, and in certain cases it was hoped that they ■would be associated with women. In regard to the "City Mother," to whom the Leader of the Opposition had referred, tho Minister said he gathered that the system prevailed only in California^ where child welfare work was not regarded as being very far advanced. It was obvious that the Bill contained nothing that would be treated in a party spirit by the House, and he expressed the hope that its passage would be facilitated.

Mr. Holland drew attention to a clause providing for a certain part of tho money earned by a child at an institution, to be withheld by the superintendent, at his discretion, or to be paid wholly into the Consolidated Fund. The Minister said that a certain propOTtion of the money could be received by the child and Hanked. "NOTHING NEW" The Leader of the Opposition (Mr. T. M. Wilford) said that the hearing of juvenile cases apart from the Common Court was already in practice, and all the points the Minister wanted to avoid were- already avoided. A sort of City Mother, Mrs. Glover, advised the Magistrate. The Minister was taking power to institute what had been going on for months, and the Bill would not advance things so far as Wellington was concerned. He would like to see women's Courts established as well as juvenile Courts. Such Courts existed in America, and wonderful results were achieved. America was hundreds of years in advance of this country in that respect. He wanted also"to see •women Justices appointed, and to see women taking a bigger part generally in children's af-, fairs. There were cases in which kindhearted women were the only possible judges, and in which no man, however humanitarian he might be, could possibly administer justice.

Mr. Holland said he was struck with several aspects of 1 the subject, and one was the magnitude of the problem of dealing with subnormal and delinquent children. He expressed the opinion that punishments nover got a child anywhere, and lie thought the time would come when it would be considered • an atrocity to punish children in schools. The children's Courts should not be called Courts, and' 1 special officials to take tho place of the uniformed policemen should lie appointed, preferably girls. The Magistrates should bo specially qualified, with adequate knowledge of the influences of heredity. He advocated the appointment of permanent women Stipendiary Magistrates to deal with such cases, and ho thought the ordinary J.P., unless he had necesBury special qualifications, should not bo called upon to take them. Mr. Holland also expressed the opinion that the term "sentence" should bo abolished and that the idea should be one of hospital rather than of punitive treatment. In regard to Weraroa, ho thought there was too indiscriminate mixing of the children. The biggest task in dealing with delinquent children was to understand their tempsrament; the policy should bo one of kindness, with a view to winning the child's confidence. He had never been able to understand why a. child's earnings should not bft handed over to him when he left the institution. ' If ho was incnpablo of looking nfler his money he should not be. in a condition for rclosisc Ho hoped Iho clause in 1h" Dill to tlio offect lie referred to would tn altered in Committee. Ho folt quite sure every member of. the House would y/elwwe

the move that the Bill made for the welfare of the children.

A STEP FORWARD

Mr. W. D. Lysnar (Gisborne) commended the Bill as a step forward. He agreed that something in the nature of women's Courts shoultl be established for minor offences, but he would not advocate women J.P.s to deal with the cases. He hoped the Minister would see that children dealt with in the Courts would not have a biot put upon their names by the recording of crimes against I them. Mr. W. J. Jordon (Manukau) urged that the stigma of criminal conviction should not rest on children committed to receiving homes. Replying to the discussion, the Minister stated that the object of having children's Courts was to get away from Criminal Courts altogether, but that did not seem to satisfy the Leader of the Opposition. Mr. Wilford: "You can do that now." The Minister said Mr. Wilford might have admitted that the provision for a children's Court was an advance on what was the practice now. Ho did not think the term "Children's Court" contained anything offensive, and he wont on to say that the earnings of boys on training- farms were kept by the Department until the boys could make proper use of them. The Bill was read a second time and referred to the Education Committee.