CONTROL OF A BOY.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 19311, 26 April 1926, Page 12

CONTROL OF A BOY.

ESCAPE FROM STATE HOME. CHARGE AGAINST A FATHER. REFUSAL TO GIVE UP SON. Unusual circumstances surrounded a case heard in the Special Children s Court before Mr. E. C. Cutten, S.M., on Saturday, when a married man was charged with harbouring his son who escaped from the Auckland Industrial School on April 9. A climax was reached when the mother violently resisted tho efforts of the police to take the boy from her after he had been ordered back to the institution. Mr. J. F. W. Dickson appeared for defendant. Mr. J. S. Cupit, child welfare officer to the Education Department, said the boy was committed to tho Industrial School on August 16, 1917, and in October. 1920, a license was issued enabling him to return to his parents. Last March the department cancelled this, license and or dereel the boy back to the school, but ho absconded and went to his parents. He was traced to nis homo, but on being approached the father absolutely refused to part with his son. Counsel attacked the attitude taken by the department in cancelling tho license, and stated the father had a perfect right to have the. custody of his child. Mr. Dickson said the man was hard working and had been in steady employment since he returned. The magistrate pointed out that the father was charged with harbouring his boy. The license had been cancelled, but the magistrate could not go into the question whether the license was proper. " The father says he will go to prison rather than give up his child, and [ his viewpoint is a proper one. If the ! department is going to handle individual | cases like this it will make the Children's Court a farce and tiie whole thing will be a humbug if the department can, ipso facto, take a child from its parents. The magistrate advised counsel to allow the boy to go quietly back to the institution. He said there must be some reason why the license was cancelled. The Court could not decide on its | validity now the boy had been committed to the institution. Mr. Cupit: If Mr Dickson takes his case before the department he will receive every consideration. It is not one-sided. , It was agreed to adjourn the case for a week. Defendant: On what grounds are von taking the boy, he has done nothing ? " He is my own flesh and blood. You will not take him," cried the boy's mother, throwing her arms round him as a sergeant laid his hand on tho lad's shoulder. The sergeant then endeavoured to grasp the boy, whereupon the mother made another demonstration of protest. Father Bradley intervened, and after some time the parents agreed to let the boy return to the Industrial School for a week.