Police Squad at Boys' Farm

Manawatu Times, Volume 64, Issue 145, 22 June 1939, Page 6

Police Squad at Boys' Farm

Serious Happenings Rumoured FIRES AND WINDOW SMASHING (Special to “Times”) LEVIN, June 21. Rumours of serious incidents at the Weraroa Boys’ Training Farm were freely circulated in Levin today, and it would appear that they are not entirely groundless. The manager (Mr. J. J. Hercock) was communicated with, but he declined to give any information or answer certain questions which a * ‘ Times ’ ’ representative wished to put to him. The police remained equally reticent and would make no comment. It is understood, however, that during the last few days several attempts have been made by inmates to set fire to the institution, the most serious of which occurred early yesterday morning, when an attendant visited a dormitory to find one wall alight. The outbreak was suppressed just in the nick of time, leaving a hole in the wall through to an adjoining room. Later in the morning it is believed that a section of the inmates, some of whom are thought to have been connected with the earlier trouble, set out on a window breaking escapade and smashed some twenty panes of glass in various parts of the institution.

Late yesterday afternoon it is said that the farm was visited by the Minister of Education (Hon. P. Fraser), Dr. C. E. Beeby (assistant Director of Education) and Mr. McClure (Child Welfare Supervisor). Rumour has it that they went into conference with the management and a visiting police inspector, and that subsequently the Minister addressed the boys.

It was also stated that some of the youths were forming plans to bum the building down last night, and that in consequence of thi3 and the generally unsettled state of some of the inmates, four police constables and a sergeant from Palmerston North and Wellington were sent to the institution for special patrol duty. It is understood that to-day there were seven constables and one sergeant in attendance at the farm.

The presence of this form of assistance strongly suggests that trouble of a serious nature was anticipated.