Mr Shand On Thai Orphan’s Entry

Press, Volume CV, Issue 30975, 3 February 1966, Page 15

Mr Shand On Thai Orphan’s Entry

(New Zealand Press Association)

WELLINGTON, February 1.

The Minister of Immigration (Mr Shand) today commented on an Auckland couple’s decision to emigrate to Ireland in order to adopt a Thai orphan.

Mr Shand said he had not known of the case of Mr and Mrs J. Hartley, of Milford, until it was reported in yesterday’s newspapers. They have decided to go to Ireland rather than battle with immigration authorities for permanent entry of a Thai child to New Zealand.

The Minister has confirmed a statement by an Immigration Department officer that Mr Hartley never made an application for adoption of the child.

“My officers try to satisfy themselves that the foster parents—in addition to ah immediate impulse to assist one of the unfortunates of the world, however praiseworthy that impulse may be—have the necessary qualifications to protect and foster the child until it reaches adulthood in an environment where it will face many difficulties which will not face an indigenous child.

“Where foster parents have already been associated with or supported a child for a substantial period, there is at least a presumption that their interest will be sustained. “Where ties of affection have already been established the department will naturally be less inclined to resist an application even though it may have doubts about the capacity of the foster parents to carry out their very difficult task. “It is sometimes argued that the lot. of an orphan child in, say Thailand or Korea might be so bad that even an unsatisfactory adoption In New Zealand is to be preferred,” said Mr Shand. He said he did not accept that argument. If the relief

of misery was the only consideration, then the expenditure of a similar sum to the cost of rearing a child in New Zealand was more effective in the child’s own country. Mr Shand said the department had done all it could to facilitate the application after Mr Hartley reported to immigration officials that: He intended to leave New Zealand and settle in Ireland in six months and showed he had already booked his passage. He had obtained the approval of the Irish authorities to take the child to Ireland, subject only to producing evidence of adoption of the child in Thailand.