CHILD WELFARE.

Waikato Times, Volume 104, Issue 17447, 6 July 1928, Page 11

CHILD WELFARE.

OPERATION OF ACT. AN OFFICER’S EXPERIENCE. MANY PROBLEMS. “Does Child Welfare work ,in New Zealand compare favourably with the ■work carried out in other'countries ?” This was the direct .question put by a Post representative to Mr J. Beck, superintendent of the Child Welfare branch of the Education Department. Seeing that-Mr Beck is the legal guardian of some thousands of children in the Dominion, it was obvious that he, if anyone, would be in a position to answer the question. The question was prompted by reference to the International Report on Child Welfare Work, ' a bulky -volume wherein _is printed an account of what is being accomplished all the world over. Every important country in the world' is represented in that report, and some' so very unimportant countries that one would hesitate before placing the finger on the exact spot on the map where they are situated. Turning to the pages dealing with New Zealand, it is somewhat disappointing to find only a very short and perfunctory report of our activities for Child Welfare in this country. The twentieth century is said to be the children's century, and it is not a happy thought to think that meagre report is all we deserve, that we might be lagging behind other countries in scientific and humanitarian measures for the children.

A Favourable Comparison.

Hence the question to Mr Beck, and his answer was reassuring: “With certain reservations,’’ he said, “I think that Child Welfare work in New Zealand compares most favourably with that of other countries. But it must be noted,” he continued, “that the science-inspired Child Welfare work as conceived by the trained mind today is a new thing. Its aim is not merely humanitarian, in the old sense, but it is also scientifically constructive for the individual child. We need not feel-slighted at the meagreness of the report in the International Year Book. That is the first International Report of Child Welfare work that has ever been published, and the data must necessarily have been difficult to collect. Especially difficult in our case, as the Child Welfare Act was passed in 1925, and it was not till 1927 that reports of its actual working were available. “ Not that Child Welfare work commenced in New Zealand at the passing of that Act. New Zealand has always taken good care of its children, and some of our measures have attained wide-world commendation. But that date marks a definite stage in Child Welfare work in this country, a stage when the State defined with greater exactitude its responsibilities to the less fortunate of its little citizens, and formulated more stringent measures for their protection and welfare; left them not so much to the chance of private enterprise and charity. The' special work of the Department does not concern -itself with the children who have good homes and respon-sible-parents. Other branches of the service co-operate with them in their care of the .children, such, for instance, as the school medical officers, the dental clinics, and so on. Our work concerns itself with the destitute, the illegitimate, the neglected. Our aim is to prevent the wastage of child life, the moral wastage no less than the physical.” Should be Children’s Paradise. The interviewer hazarded the suggestion that several distinguished visitors and others had spoken of New Zealand as “a children’s paradise”: were there then so many children amongst whom work was necessary?

Mr Beck’s reply was that, it might he a paradise for some children, hut it was not as yet for all.'Last year the total number of children under the supervision of the Child Welfare officers was 5592. “New Zealand,” he added, “should be a children’s paradise. We.have an ideal climate, plenty of space, are isolated from contamination; our original stock was good, and we are careful to admit only picked emigrants of British blood. Yet our investigations into the.child life of the country show that if we do not tackle our problems now, while they are still of manageable proportions, we shall land ourselves precisely where the older countries find themselves. Our good beginning and our careful emigration policy| will count for no more than America’s open door. For decades, America was the dumping ground for the poor and illiterate of Western Europe at the rate of a million a year.” “We have our own peculiar problems and dangers, but in our care and experimental training of the feebleminded we have been lagging behind other countries. We have two spe-cial-schools for' feeble-minded children, one at Richmond (near Nelson) for girls, and one at Otekaike (near Oamaru) for boys. The number of girls in residence at Richmond is 71, and the number of boys at Otekaike 190. These institutions are for children educable to a certain degree, but who, for various reasons, cannot be provided for in their homes. They arc taught farm work, gardening, domestic work, and as varied a number of handicrafts as feasible. These two institutions, with the Boys’ Training Farm at Weraroa and the Girls’ | Home at Burwood, are practically the | only institutions we have. We have receiving homes and cottage probaj tion homes where' children are adi milted for a short period of observai tion and treatment, if necessary, - bej fore being placed in homes in the j community. But we consider them i as clearing houses, or as refuges { where the older boys and girls can ; stay when changing situations, but i never as permanent places of residence for them.” Foster Homes or Institutions? The question was then asked of Mr Beck where all his wards were if they ; were not in institutions, and how did ' he keep track of them. “They are : chiefly hoarded out in registered foster homes where they are supervised by our Child Welfare officers,” was the reply. “Some are in institutions, and at the end, of the last oilicial year there were 1909 children boarded out and 888 in situations. Most of .our’wards are normal children, if unfortunate in their circumstances. Wc feel most strongly that they should be brought up in a normal fashion. To me that means that they should know the atmosphere of a good home, attend the local school with other children, learn self-reliance as free members of the community, so that, when school days arc over, they may take' their'place as citizens without any mental readjustment. To many people, strange to say, this is a debatable point. They think. State wards should.be brought, up in an institution. But r rancy the

people who imagine the orphan and destitute child would be better trained for citizenship in an Institution, think that all children would be better for such a training, and that parents do not become expert in child-rearing simply because they have become parents. * The love and care of the children is the greatest source of education for the adult. There is one drawback to the foster home system. Our w'ork does not attract the attention, and therefore the public interest and support, it would do if we could show imposing and well-managed institutions. You can always get people to take an interest in an mstittution, but the more successful our work is the less we have to show. Our boarded-out children carry no badge, and are just part of the everyday community life. It' is only our failures that show.” Mr Beck agreed that institutions represented only half a world to the - child inmate. A foster home was preferable, especially when picked as the Department’s were. The homes were frequently visited and reports made. If a foster home proved tc be unsatisfactory in any way, the child was transferred to another. If, on the other hand, the children were failures or unmanageable in foster homes they went to Weraroa or Buiwood. “It speaks much for the success of the system,” commented Mr Beck, “that very few find their way there.” 1 Delinquent Children. Discussion having turned on delinquent children, Mr Beck said that inevitably there were young children brought to them who were so perverted that they were not fit to assocate with others, cither in a home oi an institution. These, chldren required special and individual care. “Personally,” added Mr Beck, I doubt whether there is such a thing in the sense of an innately criminal child. Certainly there is no deep gulf, as some people imagine, between the normal child- and the delinquent. Every healthy child .is naughty sometimes; but under wise parents its naughtiness is not -allowed to develop into actions which become anti-social, and which we speak of as delinquency, actions which in the adult would be punishable with imprisonment. In the same way there is no definite dividing line between the backward child and the feebleminded. The highly intelligent children grade downwards by just perceptible degrees to the backward, the more backward, and finally to what we often erroneously call feebleminded. It is our work to discover and remove the inhibiting causes .which arc keeping these backward children from making progress; to find the special activities which each individual child needs as a slmulus to its mental development-. Our task, in fact, is to help each child; to raise its standard, to help Ihe physically weak to become physically fit; the backward to lake their place on an equality with the children of their own age; the irresponsible and unstable to become responsible and stable; the intelligent to receive secondary education and a chance to develop their talents. if wc can work through llie parents, we do so; if they are not there, or arc worse than useless, wc need other helpers.. This work is not parochial: it extends from the North Cape to the Bluff. We need the co-operation of all intelligent social workers who are devoted to the interests of children.”

A Ivord of praise was added by Mr Beck for the “Big Brother” and "Big Sister” movements, ‘ saying that in proportion to the growth of the spirit by such movements, so will he the decline in the number of inmates in our Borstal institutions and prisons.

“The incorrigibly naughty hoy, for instance, is the point at which the Howard League could start its study of penology; study the habitual criminal in embryo and help thereby to turn potential criminals into useful citizens.”

The establishment of Children’s Courts had been a step in the right direction, marking a new era in legal justice for the child.

Problem of the Illegitimate

After detailing Hie steps taken to prevent traffic in babies, Mr Beck went on to discourse upon the problem of the illegitimate child. “The Child Welfare Department has the right to supervise all children of illegitimate birth," he pointed out._ “This provision was made because our officers discovered that a large percentage of the children brought under their notice for - malnutrition or neglect were illegitimate children. In every country where statistics are kept, the death rate among these unfortunate children is much higher than among children horn in wedlock. It is so in New Zealand. Last year we had under supervision 559 illegitimate infants born during the year. These were placed in registered foster homes where intelligent care was given to them. Not one of them died. Of course, if the unmarried mother has a good home and is financially able and, willing to look after the baby herself, there is no need for the Child Welfare officer to interfere. Rut, in very many cases it is necessary for the girl to he self-sup-porting at once, and she leaves the baby with anyone who will take charge of it. In cases of this kind the Child Welfare officer may help her to establish the paternity of the child and obtain financial assistance for its support, and also help her, if necessary, to find suitable work again.” Parental Responsibility. “Is there any danger that this work of a parental Government may tend to lessen the sense of responsibility in the parents?” was the last question asked of Mr Beck.

“I fancy," was the answer, “tljat the .same question was asked when free education was introduced, and had been asked every time the collective parental instinct has extended its'care and deepened its sense of responsibility to its less fortunate children. We are certainly not out to lessen the sense of individual responsibility, but rather to foster it, for our work is essentially preventive and educative —educative, that is, for the parent as well as for the child. When the parents are living it is our work to see that they do not shelve their responsibilities; it is only when the children are likely to he permanently injured by the conditions under which they live that we take them away. There are an unusual number of institutions for children in New Zealand supported privately. These we have the right to inspect and even to close up if they do not fulfil the requirements of the Child Welfare Act. We are, however, neither responsible for the educational policy followed there, nor for the child’s individual welfare, nor for the reasons why it was admitted. An overwhelming percentage of the children In these institutions have either one or both parents living. It might presumably be better for both parents and children if many of them were together There is a great need of co-ordination of the Government work with these vol-

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untary efforts In order to prevent overlapping, and also for the adoption or a definite uniform standard in social service work. Conferences for discussion would help much. Not Weak Sentimentalism. “It is not weak sentimentalism that is leading the civilised nations to gi\e such heart-searching thought and patieht scientific experiment to Us problems of child life. It is common sense. They seek national self-pre-servation. These children that the Child Welfare Department spend so much time and thought and money over are not, and never can be, isolated, independent, negligible units. They are part of our social community, an integral part of the entity we call our nation. If they are diseased, ignorant, undisciplined, they retard the progress and affect ttie whole to an extent we cannot calculate. “The records we keep are already forming a bureau of information for research workers in child psychology and social problems. Each child we have is to’ us an individual child and is studied individually, hut to know these ndividual cases in entirety is to know the peculiar problems that New Zealand lias to face—New Zealand problems, and not those of any other country.”