VANDALISM

Evening Post, Volume CXL, Issue 64, 13 September 1945, Page 9

VANDALISM

Report To House

RECOMMENDATIONS MADE'

Although recommending that the Wellington City Council AntiVandalism Bill be not allowed to proceed, the Local Bills Committee, reporting to the House of Representatives yesterday afternoon, suggested that the Government take further steps to put down vandalism. The Committee, in its report, urged the Government to provide further means of educating young people in duties of citizenship and generally for their leisure and recreation. After discussion, the Committee's report was adopted. General sympathy for the object of the Bill was shown, but the view was expressed that it was a dangerous principle, even under certain circumstances, to confer the power of arrest on individual citizens acting as wardens.

Mr. C. M. Bowden (National, Wellington West) said that, as sponsor of the Bill, he was somewhat disappointed that the committee had not seen its way clear to recommend that the Bill be allowed to proceed, but he thanked the committee for its careful consideration of the measure and the representations made to it. The objection taken to the measure was rather to its machinery and certain powers contained in it.

passing phase. In his view, some scheme was necessary which would occupy the energies of youth usefully.

DANGERS SEEN,

The Prime Minister (Mr. Fraser) said that everybody was in sympathy with the object of the Bill, but it was just a question of how it should be carried out, with due regard, to the dangers inseparable from giving standard powers to citizens in regard to the liberty of other citizens. He did not think for a moment that Mr. McKeen intended to reflect on the E.P.S. wardens. As far as he (Mr. Fraser) was aware, they were not involved in the matter at all. Every citizen, when he saw a crime being committed, had the power to interfere, even to the point of arrest, provided he was prepared to take the risk of an action i'or damages if he did something that was not justified. To interfere-with that status was a serious matter, and he thought the committee had taken the correct view. In his view there should be a course of education for both' children and adults in the matter of the protection of property. A social sense should be developed. People who would never dream of raiding private gardens would raid public gardens. He had listened with a great deal of dismay to the long list of depredations enumerated by Mr. Bowden. The Minister of Internal Affairs, he thought, could help also through the physical welfare and recreation scheme to develop the sentiment that all public property was at least as saci'ed as private property. He thought the Bill had served a useful purpose, and he hoped it would be possible to deVise something that would be effective to achieve the object of the measure.

Mi-. Bpwden detailed some of the acts of vandalism perpetrated in Wellington.

During the past six months 48 of the walk-to-the-left signboards had been damaged, he said. He also referred to damage done by stones, and said that 23 pedestrian crossing posts had been broken or stolen; a large-number of street name-plates had been damaged or removed, protective fences had suffered similarly, and public seats had come in for a good deal of* attention, it being a daily occurrence to find seats broken. Earthenware drainpipes were blocked and smashed, and the plumbing in public conveniences was damaged. Breaking-in and theft of tools and tarpaulins and gardening materials was an everyday occurrence. Taxi telephones were pulled out and left lying on the footpaths, and objects were thrown at trains, and there had been an instance of a detonator being placed on a tram track. Three waiting sheds had been set on fire, and the windows in twelve others had been broken. In a further six waiting sheds damage had been done to the seats or structure. STREET LAMPS BROKEN. In the six months, continued Mr. Bowden, 130 street lamps were broken and 40 lamp guards were broken off. At the Zoo notice boards had been removed, the fish tanks completely blocked and the fish had been allowed to escape. Birds had been stolen and other exhibits had been killed by stone-throwing and also stolen. In the gardens, said Mr. Bowden, the position was dreadful. In one night 200 name-plates had been taken. Other damage included the smashing of a lavatory pan and the damaging of seats by throwing them into the pond. At Lyall Bay beach the doors had been ripped off bathing sheds, and in one night 24 panes of glass had been broken. The fountain had been broken at Central Park, and other reserves had also suffered, the itemised damage to the reserves alone running into four pages. He said the Police Department could not be blamed for the serious position that had developed, because the police had been very short-handed and could not patrol all the areas. The damage was not being done by school children, but by youths and also grown men, who should know better. The position had become such that a number of public-spirited citizens who had served as E.P.S. wardens had approached the City Corporation and had offered to act in a similar capacity to assist in the protection of public property. It was proposed that they should be given the power of arrest to be exercised only when a person refused to give his name. Mr. Bowden added that he hoped the Government would act on the committee's recommendation and take up the matter in the interests of checking vandalism in New Zealand as a whole. COMMITTEE'S VIEWS. Mr. S. W. Smith (National, Bay of Islands) said the committee recognised the importance of protecting Wellington city and other centres from vandalism, tout the reports the committee received did not recommend the Bill. The committee was concerned over the fact that the Bill proposed to give to individuals, not employees of the City Corporation, powers it thought were excessive for anyone acting in that capacity. He added that he hoped the Government would take some action to assist the civic authorities in all parts of the Dominion to' control vandalism. Mr. R. McKeen (Government, Wellington South) said he was opposed to the principle of giving a citizen the power of apprehension of other citizens. The temperaments of individuals differed, and there were "nosey Parker" types who did not require much incentive to do something they had no right to do. The police were trained for the. job, and to give authority to other people who were untrained wais a dangerous principle. Except that there was not the right to apprehend, local bodies now, he thought, had the powers they sought in the Bill under their by-laws.

Mr. A. S. Sutherland (National, Hauraki) recalled that Orakei residents at Auckland set up a sort of vigilance committee after much vandalism had been experienced, and that had reduced the destruction considerably.

The Minister of Internal Affairs (Mr. Parry) said that not only children but adults were responsible for vandalism. He quoted the case of carelessness on the part of motorists going through bush country. They threw away cigarettes and started many destructive fires.

Mr. J. T. Watts (National, Riccarton) stressed the need i'or the placing of greater importance on family life, where the education of children on their responsibilities should begin.

DAMAGE TO STATE HOUSES

The Minister of Works (Mr. Semple) said that the State Housing Department had had very sad experiences regarding vandalism in houses which had to be left three-parts finished so that defence construction could be carried out. At one place in Auckland nearly 200 houses were left partly finished.

Mr. W. J. Poison (National. Stratford) said he did not think Mr. Mc'Keen was fair in describing as "nosey Parkers" men who had done a remarkable job during the war.

Mr. McKeen: This is a different job altogether. I was not referring to them, and you know it.

Mr. Poison said he was a member of a committee of the House that had been told by the Commissioner of Police that the increase in juvenile crime was serious. He (Mr. Poison) felt that at this point of time, when some of the barriers were down, it was possibly not necessary to feel too much alarmed, because it might be a

He went through those houses on one occasion and found to his horror that every single window had been broken. When work Avas begun again every window was smashed a second time. Not only were windows smashed, but holes were poked through the lining of walls and ceilings.

Things similar to that had happened all over New Zealand. Apart from vandalism, much thieving also took place. As far as children were concerned, the remedy was in the home. Too many children were, running wild with no, home life. The remedy was not in legislation, but in training the infant mind right from the start.

| Mr. J. Acland (National, Temuka) complimented the Wellington City Council on bringing the matter forward so that the House could have the discussion. They had been shocked at the vandalism in Wellington. From evidence given before the committee it was found that at the Wellington Zoo stones were thrown at the animals, and not long ago the throwing of stones and bottles killed a crocodile. Then there was a man with a diamond ring who cut the glass wall out of a case in which fish were kept. One trouble was that many women had their husbands at the war and could not completely control their children. Much of that trouble would stop when the men returned. Another cause of trouble was the fact that in some homes where there were children both man and wife went to work. That was to be deplored. A mother's place should be in the home to look after her children until they were at least 15.