MENTALLY DEFICIENT CHILDREN

Southland Times, Issue 25763, 29 August 1945, Page 7

MENTALLY DEFICIENT CHILDREN

New Home At Weraroa (P.A.) WELLINGTON, August 28. The ) roperty at Levin which used to be the Weraroa boys’ training farm, but which was an Air Force training station for several years during the war, is now being used by the Mental Hospitals Department for the accommodation of children in the same class as those at the Templeton Farm colony near Christchurch. The patients whom the department has at Templeton and intends to have at Levin are children who are mentally deficient but are not insane, including some who are adult in years, but remained childish mentally. They require protection from the hazards of normal life, but live and work satisfactorily in an institution. There are now at Levin 42 boys whose homes are in the North Island and who have been transferred from Templeton. It is intended that both sexes shall be accommodated, but the buildings will have to be altered before the girls arrive. With minor alterations the buildings will accommodate 100 to 120. They could be adapted to take 600 to 700, though Templeton’s present population is only 426. The buildings include a picture theatre. The farm consists of about 200 acres and the boys will find occupation in farming and gardening. The girls will work in the laundry and at sewing and other handwork.