CHILD WELFARE

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume 79, 16 August 1944, Page 6

CHILD WELFARE

STATE DEPARTMENT WORK GUIDANCE AND SUPERVISION Wellington, August 15. “The child to-day is much the same as the child 1000 years ago. People were then asking what was to become of the world if the children were going to behave in new fashions, just as they are asking to-day.” said the Superintendent of Child Welfare, Mr J. R- McLune, in an address on the work of his department to members of the Wellington School Committees and Educational Association last night. Far too much was being made of the behaviour of children to-day. There were special problems arising from the war, but he was glad to say that recently there had been little increase in what was called child delinquency. It was right that when a child needed guidance the State should step in. In the old days the child was sent from the court to an institution. To-day it was committed to the care of the superintendent, and it was the preventive part of his work that was the most important. The work had to be planned so that the child was dealt with an an earlier age to avoid it coming before the court at all. Children coming before the courts might be dealt with in four ways. The matter might be dismissed; it might be the subject of a fine: the child might be placed under the supervision of a child welfare officer for a period; or an order might be made for committal to the care of the superintendent. It had bqen found that the fosterhome was the most fruitful way of handling the children. » was surprising how many grew up well under such treatment, and those who took the children and cared for them were doing real human acts. There were, of course, some who failed in such homes, and they had to be dealt with in institutions. There were 143 such at March last. They had a few months’ “straightening up” before reaching a placement age.

“By repression we feel we won’t get anywhere,” said Mr McLune. “The whole training in the institutions is therefore along positive lines. It is the same for boys and girls. You would be surprised at the response we are getting from the work in the home in Christchurch for girls who have missed out in life for some reason or other.” There were some 250 men and women throughout the Dominion who had been appointed honorary child welfare officers, and the work they were doing was a very great success. Each child had, however, to be taken individually. No general plan could be laid down for the work. Another part of the department’s work was with illegitimate births. Every one of these was confidentially notified, and a welfare officer went along to see that suitable provision was being made for the child’s welfare. If necessary, the mother was found wojk, and care was taken that the child was properly provided for, the mother being helped by the State if need be. There had been a large increase in the number of adoptions. More than 800 had been legally adopted last year, mostly at ages up to five years. The department cared for Maori children in the same way as it did for whites, but it had to be realised that conditions were often very different. The department had had British children to look after since their arrival late in 1940. They had done splendidly. One of them recently got his wings in the Air Force, and was expecting to go overseas shortly. At least half of them were now receiving higher education. “We cannot say too much of the people who took them in. Some took as many as four,” said Mr McLune. Mr McLune made a plea for consideration for the wayward child. It was often not the child’s own fault but that of the parents. Some parents were too assertive of their rights, and the child was too repressed in its upbringing.