TE ORANGA HOME.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXIX, Issue 6371, 20 November 1907, Page 8

TE ORANGA HOME.

INTERVIEW WITH THE MATRON. HOW THE GIRLS ARE TREATED. PRESS ASSOCIATION. CHRISTCHURCH, November 19. To Oranga Homo, where tho quasi criminal girls of tho State aro sent, and in connection with which charges have been made recently that unduo punishment was meted out to two girls for attempting to escape, was informally inspected by a “Press” reporter to-day. Mrs Branting, tho matron, stated that only _ in very exceptional cases does she resort to corporal punishment, and only then when a sufficient timo has elapsed after tho commission of an offence to givo amide opportunity for explanation or repentance. Cells are provided in which recalcitrants arc confined for varying periods of hours, and sometimes all night. In tho latter case mattresses and bedclothes are furnished, and one of the attendants is, within hail, so that the punishment amounts practically only to deprivation of companionship. In tho recent exceptional case tho cutting off of a girl’s hair was .only resorted to with tho concurrence ■■ tho Minister, and tho girl subsequently admitted that that was tho only expedient that would prevent her attempting to escape again.

Tho host evidence that girls in service appreciated the homo treatment, Mrs Branding said, was the fact that they, invariably assisted in tracing fugitives. Girls in service frequently came back to tho home to spend their holidays, and many fell back upon its hospitality m tho event of sickness or unemployment. “During tho whole eight years not one girl who has been placed out at service from the homo has fallen,” Mrs Branting added. 'T could place all our girls in good situations,” and mistresses once having To Oranga girls always ask for more. The girls have told men over .and over again that the work hero is not a fifth as hard as in a situation. Wo keep track of them all the time, and as they are not able to draw savings at 21 without tho sanction of the Minister this acts as a further incentive to good behaviour. The Christchurch “Press,” in an article on the homo this morning, says; ■—“There is no suspicion of harshness about tho general conduct of tho institution, and much patience and kindliness is shown in, helping tho unfortunate girls | to rise out of the moral and physical ihorass into which they have sunk. But in such an institution it is obvious that discipline must bo maintained; with a firm hand, and there aro times when punishment is absolutely necessary. In tho particular case to which public attention has been drawn it appears that two of the girls hid themselves with a view to escape, and that they entered into a plot to induce a number of other inmates to abscond and join them in a house of ill-fame. It seems to us that this was a crisis in which a rosewater policy would have been a fata! mistake. Tho matron did not act hastily or without a duo sense of responsibility. After full consideration, and getting authority from tho Minister, she strapped the two ringleaders and cut off their hair with a view to preventing them from again attempting to escape. Wo do not like the idea of strapping girls, but if experience lias shown that corporal punishment is necessary in tho worst of the cases dealt with- at Te Oranga wo should pay it would bo mistaken kindness to withhold it. Wo find the liair-cutting denounced 1 as ,‘mutilation’ and ‘an atrocity.’ It seems to us that humanitarism _ has crossed the borderline of hysterics.” Tho article concludes;—“lt would be unfair not to add that in our opinion tho. Minister, Mr Fowlds, deserves credit for standing by an officer who has been unjustly attacked.” ,