WERAROA BOYS’ FARM

Greymouth Evening Star, 14 July 1939, Page 3

WERAROA BOYS’ FARM

PRESENT SYSTEM INADEQUATE [per press association.] WELLINGTON, July 13. “Plans have been prepared for a complete new institution to replace the , vV’erarpa. Boys’. Training Farm,” said the Assistant-Director of. Education. (Dij. C. E. Beeby) during an address on the work of, the Child Welfare. Department to the Women’s Division of the Farmers’ Union. With new buildings and a reorganised staff, the institution, wpuld be- able to achieve its ends, better., he said. IDr. Beeby said a fuller and better statement, than, he could make would .be made .in another place. The'Weraron Boys’ Training Farm was not a prison. The boys at Weraroa were the ones for whom the Child Welfare Department felt there was some hope that they would become decent citizens. The buildings at Weraroa were inadequate, and unsuitable for the. classification of the boys being trained to the end be mentioned, and so it had been impossible to conduct the institution in the way the department would have liked. He was optimistic about the future of the institution. It was necessary, of course, to prot-j.-t property, and that protection, it was hoped, would be obtained with the l i tw buil-lings and reorganisation of ilic staff. It was not a recent problem.

Mrs. 11. McLeavy, said she lived next door to the Weraroa Boys' Training Farm, and believed she could speak with some authority. Liberty and licence were confused there. Dr. Beeby had said the buildings had outlived their usefulness: but the farm itself had outlived its usefulness. She remembered when the boys were employed on breaking in the land, which required hard work. A great thrill was to lie had from breaking in land, but not from doing chores. Now the boys were given cows to milk, and it might be a different c.ow every, day. There was not the same incentive to take a. pride in their work and excel. They were not given a fair spin. Dr. Beeby said be appreciated all that Mrs. McLeavy had said, and there was much wisdom in it, although Ihe did not agree with all of if. Some of the boys were not fitted to farm work. but. the department intended to alter the system there entirely. He agreed that a lot of salvation was to

be got from the, sweat of the brow. The situation did not reflect discredit, on any particular person. Several speakers praised the conduct of certain institutions controlled by the department.