TRAINING OF YOUTH

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 83, Issue 39, 16 February 1939, Page 6

TRAINING OF YOUTH

WHAT IS NEW ZEALAND COMING TO? JUDGE EXPRESSES CONCERN TWO YOUNG OFFENDERS DEAL! WITH. “I do not know what the young people of New Zealand are coming to,” observed His Honour, Mr. Justice Reed, in the Supreme Court at Wanganui yesterday, when sentencing two youths, one aged 17 and the other 18, for breaking, entering and theft “The children’s Courts are kept busy dealing with this class of crime, and it seems to me that there is something wrong with the training of youth They do not inculcate discipline like they used to in the old days. As for a couple of boys like you, a good whipping would do you more good than anything.

“If I allowed the interests of the public to influence me I ought to send you to gaol,” His Honour continued, “but I have to consider, if I did that, what effect it. would have upon you. I do not want to make you confirmed criminals. I am going to grant you probation, hut on very severe terms. The least you could be sentenced to otherwise would be two years in a Borstal. I am going to limit your movements, partly as punishment and partly to give you time to reflect and probably realise the seriousness of what you have done. You will be admitted to probation for three years on the usual conditions, and on the special conditions: (1) That you do not associate with one another. (2) That, in the first six months you are not to be out of your homes after 7 o'clock at night. (3) That for the first 12 months neither of you are to go to a picture theatre or enter a billiard saloon. (4) That during the second and third years of your probation'you will each be required to make restitution to the extent of £l5. to covei the value of the articles stolen make good the damage done and pay th? costs of the prosecution." His Honour said that the second condition was a form of imprisonment. bub not the same as if the two had been sent to gaol. “This is dealing leniently with you.” His Ho.nour observed, “and I am doing it in your interests and not in the interests of the public. If you do noi comply with these conditions you can be brought up and sentenced to a (erm of imprisonment. This is all in your interests, boys, and I hope you will appreciate it. I am dealing with this more leniently than I ought to, and hope you will become good citizens and learn that other people's property cannot be interfered with as you have been doing.”