“VERY HUMAN JOB”

Otago Daily Times, Issue 25673, 23 October 1944, Page 7

“VERY HUMAN JOB”

WORK OF MAGISTRATES

“The magistracy is a very human job,” said the senior magistrate at Auckland, Mr J. H. Luxford, in an address concerning his work which he gave to the Auckland Junior Chamber cf Ci mmerce. .' . , , Speaking of the Children s Court, he said it was established so that young people under 17 should be dealt with from the point of view of correction and of correction alone, and even if they had done wrong they could be left without the stigma of conviction for what was after all often no more than a childish prank. A morning m the Children’s Court was the most exacting work that a magistrate was called on to do. Problems of guardianship of children when the parents could no longer live together were almost insoluble. Mr Luxford estimated that more than 50 per cent, of the children before the Children’s Court came from homes where the parents had a bad matrimonial history. . , . Speaking of a magistrate’s work in committing patients to mental hospitals, Mr Luxford said that there was a great deal of public misconception about these hospitals and the class of work being done there. “So many of the patients I see are senile or partly so—people who have broken down mentally or physically a little before the due season,” he said. “A few years ago they would just have been kept at home, but now because of the difficulty of getting help, and perhaps a number of members of the family at work, that is'not practicable, and people make use of the mental hospital where they knew patients will be well looked after in their age and infirmity.”