CHILDREN’S COURTS.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVI, 2 November 1926, Page 6

CHILDREN’S COURTS.

(To the Editor.)

Sir, —A feAV days ago, the Press of the Dominion published a telegram from Auckland, the purport of which was that a Avarrant had been issued for the apprehension of a boy so that he might be brought before one of the neAvlyconstituted Children’s Courts for trial. The Act constituting these courts. \vas passed last session. It is, in my judgment, a glaring example of rush legislation. It introduces matters both ol substance and procedure that are farreaching and new, and, so far as I can ascertain, there A\-as no call for the measure. Neither magistrates nor po lice officers had been called upon for their view's on the proposed changes, nor had there been any expressed out P ry b>' the public against the old order, or for the new that has been introduced. The spirit of the Act seems to be that until a boy or girl reaches the age of 16 years, any misdemeanour comnutted bv him or her is not to be called a Avrong' that talk and moral suasion are to take the place of what has hitherto been administered as justice, and that youthful wrong-doers are not to be reminded that there is such a thing as punishment. The ordinary courts are now deemed to be much too rough to deal with the tender sprigs of humanity —the pilferers, stone-throwers, thieves, and so on up to 16 years of a „ e who are occasionally brought before the courts for their own good and for the protection of the community. The clear light of the usual open court is too strong, also, for the tender susceptibilities of these young delinquents. They must be spoken to gently m a room apart from that which bears all the marks of a justice-dealing institution. No one but the parties immediately concerned shall be permitted to be present. The uniformed policeman — that guardian of law and order foi the past hundred years and the terror of the young evil-doer—is not permitted to be present, and no neAVspaper report to act as a deterrent or Avarning to other youths is permitted to be published. For hundreds of vears, solicitors, a 3 officers of the courts''of justice, have been permitted to pass in and out of the courts when open, c\mn when the cases have been of a revolting or indecent nature and the courts have been cleared, but even these gentlemen must now stay outside the Children’s Court lest their presence should bring home to the offenders that they are Avithin a court having power and ability to punish them for Avrong-doing. In ray judgment, sir. the Legislature has in this matter been dragged by the nose" by some fanatical person or body Avho, having no experience in the training of children, think that they can be guided and controlled by honeyed Avords. But every father of a family will admit that there are times Avhen he must say that so far and no further may his children go, and that if they go further, certain consequences will happen. In the hands of our police and magistrates the youth of our country had nothing to fear" in the direction of severity under the old order, and the newspapers maintained a discreet attitude in regard to the names of offenders, and so on. But under ,the neA\' regime, I much fear that familiarity Avith the neAvly constituted courts Aviil breed only contempt in the breasts of youthful offenders, and that that contempt Avill lead only to the perpetration of more and greater offences than have occurred in the past. —I am, “JOHN STILES,” HaAvera, November J.