Juvenile Depravity

Te Aroha News, Volume XXVIII, Issue 14659, 11 April 1911, Page 2

Juvenile Depravity

A fourteen year old girl was charged before Mr Bishop, S.M., at Christchurch, on Saturday, with not being under proper control. The mother is a respectable woman, but the father is the subject of a prohibition order. It was when the mother was out working that the girl fell into evil ways.

Replying to the magistrate, the girl admitted improper relations with several boys whose ages ranged from 14 to iS.

The mother said she knew nothing of these happenings and ridiculed the girl’s statement, but the girl again asserted it was true.

The magistrate said it was a shocking thing that a child should be allowed to drift into evil ways in this fashion. He made no reflection on the mother, who was a hard-working woman but who, he said, had the misfortune to have a ne’er-do-well husband. The girl was sent to the Teoraoga Home.