STATE WARDS ENQUIRY MUST BE PUBLIC MINISTER SHOULD ACT AT ONCE

NZ Truth, Issue 1305, 18 December 1930, Page 1

STATE WARDS ENQUIRY MUST BE PUBLIC MINISTER SHOULD ACT AT ONCE

MATERIAL THERE

Amazing Powers Vested In Child Welfare Chief

POWERFUL AUTOCRAT

Coincident with -"Truth's" indictment of the Child Welfare Department, and its demand for an immediate investigation of its administration, the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom, has also taken up the cudgels on behalf of the unfortunate State wards who have been placed so completely m the power of bureaucracy with all its potentialities for blundering, and has obtained from Minister of Education Atmore, a definite promise that the whole administration the Act is to be investigated.

t THE League is to be warmly comX, mended for the courage and expediency of the lead which it has given to all other women's welfare organisations m the country. The action taken by* the Women's International League ioV Peace and Freedom is m "welcome- contradistinction to the sycophantic attitude adopted, by the Auckland branch of the . National Council of Women, wh^ph, instead of lining up with its sister federation and demanding the Investigation which "Truth" has shown to be such an imperative necessity, has endeavored 'to discredit the demand for an inquiry by ascribing it to an organised campaign of propaganda against the Act. Supporting the facts given to this paper, comes another poignant story which concerns the Cayersham home. "I can say that the same things happened to me also, and hundreds of other unfortunate girls who were m the Caversham Industrial Home," writes yet an- ';•■' other girl who has read "Truth's" /.'article;'; ■■■ .:..'. .'■■>.■"■''■ •■•;<'■''•■.■••••• ■-■■■;■■■'"•■ ■ ; "I-iw^s an, inmate of that home for someone *too'K\ ujs; the, cudgels; orf behalf of the coming: girls. Let' them put some married mothers oh the. staff who Have had^ children of their own and who understand just what life is for girls. Some of the things and the punishments that went on m that home would make your hair stand on end. It is no wonder that so many of them went to the bad or ended up m Seacliff. They were driven to it. "/They do not understand the girls; certainly they were a bit wild, but you "Have Hearts" cannot tie them down. We had no recreation and no jSicnics, but I think myself that it was some of the women who were on the staff. "As to the thrashings we' had, it was pure temper on the part of the one that did' it, and what good did that do? No one understood vs — we were treated like sheep who have no brains. "I saw one girl one night who was ill at the time, bacause 'she would not do something for one of the women, thrashed with a strap back and face and all over her body. Then, when she became hysterical they threw a bucket of water over her and made her wash it up. Sheer cruelty, just to please a woman who liked to feel superior to us. ' "We have hearts like %hey have, and as for love it is a thing unknown to the inmates of a home. We are like a cilock, wound up until we stop at night m silence always." , "Talking of that cell at Caversham. Well, if hell is any, better, we girls have been there already. Religion was drummed into us, but. God must have been asleep to have allowed us to be treated like that. Some of the sweetest girls m New Zealand have, been ruined by being- sent • to the Caversham Industria-1 Home, and it will, go on year by year, with never any change. * . . "Get some mothers m their places, who will teach and train the girls. I am married myself to a good farmer, , and have two lovely children, but I am ashamed of ever havfng been m the Caversham Industrial Home. I was a child of eleven when sent there from drunken. * parents. : "Can we be reclaimed and sent out

decent citizens of New Zealand? Yes. ♦always, if we are given a chance and not beaten . down by people who say that we are no good. Because we belong to a home we. are given no. chance to rise above our plane. AYe must stay there and die down. "Some of the situations, and I had two, were' noth'ng less than slavery, all for 15/- a week, arid the employers were nothing less than pigs themselves. Good luck to your paper, and I hope you will' get some more evidence and blow the home to flames. It turns out some girls who should have beeri given a better chance than they received. Give th^in a decent chance with a few married -women, and see how they will respond to treatment." It is a very; human document- this, and the Impress of truth is upon it. If thiese things Were permitted, as the great Pitt said pleading against other hjustices, "these enoi'mities cry aloud for redress iand punishment." The Auckland branch of the Na-

tional Council, however, endeavors to decry a justified agitation without making a real endeavor to satisfy itself whether or not that agitation is justified. But if the National Council has lacked the courage to take up the matter, its sister organisation, the International League for Peace and Freedom, has fortunately not proved similarly weak-kneed, but has taken a firm and commonsense stand. Not cqntent with obtaining a promise from the Minister that the matter will be looked into, the League with commendable foresight as to the probable usefulness of official investigations, has also obtained an official promise that the official scrutiny will not be governed by official reports, but will be conducted along special,

and it is to be hoped, thorough and common, sense lines. This was a very necessary stipulation m a department where the stupidity of 'officialdom has already been responsible for too many blunders. If only a fraction of the stories told by these State wards are true, such Amend Act an investigation is more than warranted. The reputation. of this Dominion m humanitarian legislation, and the public conscience alike, demand it. . But, whatever the investigations disclose, it is more than time that stepsy were taken through legislative channels to relax the strangling bonds which officialdom has placed upon the

children who come under its* vaunted care and protection. The Child Welfare Act, 1925, and its amendments m 1927, at present seem to be designed with one express purpose— the forging of a ball and chain for each child who comes under its dominion, so that any child, who from circumstances beyond its control becomes a State ward, can contemplate no escape from State supervision until it has attained its majority. Once it passes into the guardian* ship of the Superintendent of the Welfare Department, only the Superintendent can release it, for, extraordinary as it may seem, no machinery exists by which parents or guardians can oDtam i»e re tease of their children once they have passed out of their hands into the care of the department. More than adequate provision is made to enable the department to obtain possession, of a child — force may Abases Obvious i:■ : " be used if necessary — but should the State fail m its duty or the circumstances of the , original guardians change for the better, no provision is made beyond the discretion of the Superintendent by which the child can be removed from State car.c before it reaches the age of 21 years. The abuses to which such a condition of affairs lends itself are obvious, and make it plain that not only the administration, but also the construction of the Act must be thoroughly overhauled. The powers vested m the Superintendent under the present Act are altogether too sweeping, and it is over time that some independent tribunal was given authority to exercise supervision and act as a court of appeal. If the State has the right to remove children from their lawful guardians, and to take over their control, . those guardians should surely have the right to reclaim the children if they can show to the satisfaction of the authorities that they are m a fit position to resume control.

"Truth," m publishing' the details of the cases which it investigated, made it plain that it m no way attacked the great volume of valuable work which has unquestionably been carried out by the Welfare Depart- [ ment, since the Act brought it into being m- 1926, but at the same time this paper also made it plain that it considered that the details of the cases given more than justified a demand for an immediate inquirj'. This demand, reiterated by the International League for Peace and Freedom, has now been granted by the IVfinister, and it remains to be seen what form the Ministerial action will take, and just how 'efficacious it will prove. Minister of Education Atmore has begun well by promising' an enquiry, and if he lives up to his promise, no

charge can be levelled against the Government that it did not meet the situation with requisite action. Nothing less than a full and open inquiry into all phases of the Department's administration will suffice, for public opinion must not be lulled by specious official investigations where inactivity is cloaked under reassuring phrases. No more serious indictment can be imagined than the tensely human stories which were told to "Truth" by a number of the girls who have encountered the training and care of a department which was set up to stand m loco parentis to those whom unkind circumstance has deprived of their proper and natural protectors. If those stories are true, not only is stupidity and indifference rife m some of the homes under the department's control, but inexcusable and callous cruelty has been practised by people who have abused a trust placed m them by the State. Not only is it the department's absolute duty to care for these unfortunate children according to the dictates of ordinary humanity, but it has also undertaken the responsibility of training them to face the battle ot life, That responsibility must be faithfully discharged and any failure sternly brought to account. Yet, if the methods cited to "Truth" are m operation at present, or have, been m the past, irreparable 'harm has undoubtedly been done and many young lives have been blighted before they have fully blossomed. If, as these girls allege, stupid and brutal punishments for trivial offences are permitted, if children are cast out to. work as drudges, and to be mere chattels of their masters, inquiry must be followed by action, stern" and uncompromising. And if proper moral and mental training is being neglected under/the specious guise of religious instruction, no time must be lost m bringing about a change m control which will give State wards the same facilities and advantages as their more fortunate brothers and sisters.