The Sun. 42 WYNDHAM STREET, AUCKLAND MONDAY, NOVEMBER 26, 1928 SPARING THE ROD

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 521, 26 November 1928, Page 8

The Sun. 42 WYNDHAM STREET, AUCKLAND MONDAY, NOVEMBER 26, 1928 SPARING THE ROD

MANY citizens in Auckland are concerned about the work and influence of the Children’s Court. It is a new thing and must learn by experience how to adopt the right way of guiding mischievous youth into a consistent practice of good conduct and avoidance of criminal acts. But the idealistic institution has been in operation long enough to invite critical attention. Has success marked its course of corrective service, or- has it failed to give practical effect to idealism? These questions may not yet be answered decisively, for the simple reason that most of the Court’s work has been done in an obscurity which was supposed to have been a perfect model of discretion. The general public has not been given an opportunity of studying the Court’s operations. As far as the sympathetic community knows, these may have been extraordinarily good, or exceptionally bad. Nobody knows, but many people care, and are serious in their anxiety. Perhaps it will do the principals a lot of good to learn through frank and quite friendly publicity that citizens with the best cause of the child welfare movement at heart do not hesitate to say bluntly that the Children’s Court in this centre of population is a sentimental farce from beginning to end. This may cause the Court to gasp in surprise and protest in quick indignation, but that, too, will contribute toward the' Court s ultimate good. The time has come for candour. Auckland’s record list of juvenile crime was dealt with by tlie Court last Saturday, and for once in a while the newspapers were compelled, in the interests of the community, to take a serious view of deplorable criminal tendencies among a formidable gang of unruly boys. It had been suggested that the reporters should submit their reports for official censorship, hut on the strength of evidence as to the impracticability of that interference, they were warned solemnly against making heroes of the delinquents or any indulgence in sensationalism. There was in that warning sufficient nonsense to prove at once that the Children’s Court is badly in need of friendly advice. When the Court has become able to do its delicate work as well as the reporters who chronicle the operations of all the Courts within the wide circle of the law that aims at better citizenship, there will be no anxiety about the direction of children along the road of moral rectitude. The worst offenders were sent to the Borstal Institute—a punishment that may do them more harm than good. Other delinquents were pla'ced under the watchful care of the child welfare officer, while a few received no other punishment than effeminate advice to go and become good boys. Among bad boys who are familiar with the stern Sunday School atmosphere of the Children’s Court there is no terror about it. Certainly, they are not awed by its dignity. Here is a transcription of a shorthand note of one delinquent’s advice to his mates in the corridor before entering the presence of youth uplifters: “It is a hell of a joke in there. Just keep a straight face when they talk to you, and you can laugh as much as you like after.” That sort of contemptuous talk among previous offenders scarcely is complimentary to the Court’s influence. Then on Saturday morning, several of the gangsters who awaited “trial” supported their patience and fortified their nonchalance by smoking cigarettes. A farce? It looks more like tragic nonsense. Over two thousand years ago men realised that to spare the rod was to spoil the child. The Children’s Court must come down from the lofty summit of sentiment to the plain of common sense, and teach many youthful criminals that sitting can be made a painful benefit.