CHANCES IN LIFE

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LII, Issue 17152, 30 September 1926, Page 7

CHANCES IN LIFE

FOR STATE'S CHILDREN A VALUABLE WORK MANY SURPRISING RESULTS (Special to the HeraW.) AUCKLAND, this day. The ease of the prisoner who matriculated while- in gaol has many a parallel among boys and girls under the care of the Child Welfare Department. Mr. J. S. Cupit, juvenile probation officer at Auckland, gives some interest ing accounts of the progress of children who, either through dilinquency or indigent surroundings,' bocame charges of the Stare. The children reached tin important stage of their lives at the age of 15. Each was the subject of .n special report to the probation officer by the school headmaster, and on the report depended whether the child would be given an opportunity of receiving secondary education, becoming apprenticed to a trade, or being drafted to laboring work. "In the last case," said Mr. Cupit, "which includes children of dull mentality, .we insist that the labor shall be farm labor, and so get the child away from town influence. Some of the bright children prefer farm work at times, and are, of course, given every opportunity.''' UNSTINTING GOVERNMENT The child's inclinations were always consulted, and he was encouraged to follow the vocation of his choice. There were several cases of young men and women who had been assisted to the threshold of honorable professional careers. "Nor does the Government stint a deserving case," Mr. Cupit remarked. "There is an instance of a young woman, who, though born with only one arm. has passed two sections of her examination for professional accountancy. It .was thought that the absence of the limb would prejudice her in the search'for a position, so it was decided to procure au artificial limb for her. I obtained two quotes from an English firm, one for £7O, and the other for £4O. The girl and her family have up to the present been rather a heavy charge on the State, and I fully expected the Department would instruct me to procure the cheaper arm. You can imagine my surprise when I was told to procure the dearer one." PROFESSIONAL STUDENTS Young men were sitting for law and engineering examinations, and their conduct suggested that indirectly-the. State would be well repaid for the outlay entailed by their education. "As, a "former schoolmaster under the industrial school system," said Mr. Cupit, "it is very pleasing to me. I only wish our staff was big enough to deal with the cases more thoroughly. The work involves the expenditure of the old sysfepm, .which .sometimes made its victims worse, instead of bettering them." Some times the humanitarian work of the department had its ironical side. A voting man whose education had been under Mr. Cupit's supervision was now an accountant in the Government service, and it was not impossible that before long he would be auditing Mr. Cupit's books as an officer of the Audit Department.