"TANGLED MAZE"

Evening Post, Volume CIV, Issue 28, 2 August 1927, Page 9

"TANGLED MAZE"

CRIME LEGISLATION

CHILD WELFARE ACT

(By Telegraph.) (Special to "The Evening Post.")

AUCKLAND, This Day

Three boys came up for sentence before Mr. Justice Herdnian at the Supreme Court yesterday on charges of incendiarism. The damage done by them amounted to between £3000 and £4000. They also pleaded guilty to breaking and entering and theft. "The.ease is one which cannot be dismissed with a motherly pat on the head and an injunction not to do it again," continued his Honour. Two of'the boys —namely, Burgess and Williams—were over the age of fifteen, and were therefore eligible for Borstal treatment. The other boy was nearly fifteen. There was a law in operation in New Zealand called the Child Welfare Act, which enabled children under sixteen to be dealtwith behind closed doors i» a Children's Court, but even if he had desired to do so he had no power to refer the accused back; also he had not power to order a birching in cases of arson, for which the punishment was imprisonment. "It is difficult to find a way through the tangled maze of legislation which in New Zealand deals with the punishment of crime," his Honour went on. "The Child Welfsi-e Act is-certainly difficult to interpret, but I understand it is at present under repair. If any change is made in the law I hope the jurisdiction of this Court will not be curtailed. I can understand provision being made that this Court should have power to refer to a Children 's Court cases in which such a course is considered expedient, but I can well imagine that in the public interest certain cases —such, for instance, as the one under consideration—should come before this Court and should not have the veil of secrecy drawn over them." '

From the reports before him, said his Honour, he saw that the home control of the accused was hopelessly bad. They should therefore be placed 'in an institution which -provided especially for treatment of young offenders. The two elder.boy* would bo retained in a Borstal institution for a term of not less than two years. He was of opinion that Gardner should be similarly dealt with, althought he was not yet 15 years of age, and he would outer him to be detained but not with older prisoners. A request would be made to the Minister of Justice to exercise the powers with which he was vested in order to send the boy 4o a Borstal institntion. All this meant that should the boys show signs of improvement the Minister might release them at any time on license under authority of a probation officer, or similarly authorised person or society. What would happen to them would depend upon their good behaviour and upon the will of the Esecxitive.