SOCIAL ILLS

Evening Post, Volume CVII, Issue 61, 15 March 1929, Page 13

SOCIAL ILLS

foWIDE RANGE OF REMITS

PROTECTION SOCIETY MEETS

The conference of delegates of the Society for the Protection of Women and Children was resumed yesterday afternoon.. '

Tho great difficulties presented by the conduct o£ men who ignore maintenance orders, and husbands who abscond, were discussed at some length, and it was bliowu that tho authorities had taken much trouble to deal with these, ,but go far without a great measure of success. It was decided to ask that the staff of maintenance officers should be adequate to deal promptly with defaulting persons, and that Government should bo requested to ensure more efficient administration of the law dealing with such cases, A remit from Christchurch passed wag that the Commissioner of Police be disked to instruct the attendant police at Children's Courts to wear plain clothes, it being shown that this consideration is shown in tho Dunedin Court.

On the question of unemployment of boya and girls it was decided to strongly recommend. that they should be placed oil training farms rather than allowed to drift as at present when unable to obtain employment. An Auckland remit asking that boys and girls of between 17 and 21 years of age may fee brought before the Court and placed under the control of the probation office without conviction being recorded against them waa adopted, as also was another remit recommending that the age of legal marriago of boys and girls should bo raised to 16, which is the same as the age of consent.

COURTS OF DOMESTIC RELATIONS,

It was resolved to urge that domestic cases, such/ as ' affiliation, separation, and maintenance, be taken in a Court from which the general public is excluded, preferably under such conditions as obtain in the Children's Court or Courts of Domestic Relations in Canada, with the addition of the attend' anco of the Press.

A remit from Christcburch recommended strongly that all convicted persons should be psychologically examin* ed by an expert before being sentencod. The opinion of a well-known New Zealand authority was quoted as stating that about one-third of prison inmates in the Dominion were mentally deficient and should not. be in prison at all. After considerable discussion over tho difficulties and delays which this would occasion, it was decided that iv the cause of justice and humanity it should bo done, and tho remit was passed. NEED FOB WOMEN FOLICE. A remit, which was characterised as of great importance, was as follows:_ — I "That this conference of tho New Zealand Societies of tho S.P;W. and 0. ' urges the appointment of women police in each of tho four centres, being well uware of tho necessity for such protection of children and young girls, Theso women to be well educated, refined women, able to command respect and exert influence on those with whpin they come in contact. Also that they enter the service on tho samo basis as thu men constablos, and not be expected or allowed to take up duties without adequato .training." This was proposed by tho Wellington delegate and heartily endorsed by all delegates. It was resolved that a deputation approach tho Minister from tho conference, and urge the carrying out of this much-needed reform.

Another remit passed was as follows: '' That tho law be amended .so that if a patient is sent to,the mental hospital on a Magistrate's warrant and is judged unsuitable for admission by the hospital authorities, ho shall bo automatically and at once released and not held in custody as at present, ponding a Magistrate's warrant for release." PENSIONS FOft WIDOWS. It was resolved:—"That this conference of the New Zetland branches of | the S.P.W. and C. wishes to ask that the matter of pensions for widows should have fresh consideration. At present the arrangements are not, to the mind of the society, satisfactory. Tho custom of depriving a woman of a part of her pension as she increases her earnings, and keeping her and her children on such small means that their life iii ono of hardship and continual struggle, docs not scorn justifiable. The conference strongly urges that some amendments to the Act may bo brought forward in the coming session of Parliament, and that some opportunity may be given to representatives of the society to put the case of the widowed women before the Parliamentary Committee."

Tho conference decided to meet again next year. Hearty votes of thanks were passed to tho president and committee of the Wellington Society, and the meeting closed with some informal discussioii over common nrobloras, . v