VISITING COMMITTEES

Evening Post, Volume CXV, Issue 58, 10 March 1933, Page 5

VISITING COMMITTEES

BORSTAL INSTITUTIONS

WORK EULOGISED

To aid the Prisons Department in the administration of the three Borstal institutions of th£ Dominion established under the Prevention of Crime (Borstal Institutions Establishment) Act, 1924, visiting committees are appointed at three-yearly periods. The term of the committees acting for the past three years has expired, and with the exception of two new appointments, Mr. G. C. Edwardß," J.P., to the' Point Halswell (Wellington) Committee, and Mr. M. N. Hyndman to , the Invercargill Committee, the previous personnel 'of the committees has been reappointed. The; committees are as follows:— ' Point Halswell (Wellington).—Mr. G. C Edwards, J.P. (chairman), Mesdames R. Glover, ,P. E. ''Yeates, and M. H. Chatfield, J.P. Invercargill.—Messrs. E. C. Lewey, S.M. (chairman). W. Macalister, W. A. Ott, J.P., A. McLean, R. M. Strang, JJP., and M. N. Hyndman. Waikeria:—Messrs, Francis Quin, J.P. (chairman), George. Empson, J.P., Fred. J. Gilbert, Wm. Jeffery, J.P., and F. W. -Bevin. COMMITTEES' FUNCTIONS. Outlining the functions;- of the visiting committees of the Borstal institutions, the Minister of Justice (the Hon. J.G. Cobbe)' said the committees were set up under the Act to inquire into complaints and to act in a quasi-judicial capacity in dealing with refractory inmates or breaches of the regulations, and generally to assist the superintendent ih carrying out the policy of the Prisons Department in connection with Borstal institutions. "From the reports furnished to me from time to time by the Controller-General of Prisons (Mr. B. L. Dallard) and from my personal knowledges," added the Minister, "splendid service stands to the credit of the visiting committees to these institutions. Their work is done gratuitously. Those ladies and gentlemen forming the committees devote a good deal of time to the performance of their duties, and praiseworthy is the interest they manifest in the welfare of the institutions and of the inmates."