Boys Who Abscond From Training Centre

Chronicle (Levin), 21 October 1948, Page 11

Boys Who Abscond From Training Centre

The view that the Manawatu Provincial Executive of Federated Farmers were vvrong in their recently cxpressed view of the absconding of boys from the Levin Boys' Training Centre was stated in a letter to the executive yesterday by the Acting Director of Education (Mr. A. F. McMurtrie). The boys could hardly be termed cscapees because the training centre vvas not a "prison, the letter stated, and therefore it was not an off'ence in the generally acceptcd sense for the boys to abscond. It was not agreed that the description of the boy should be broadcast 011 eaclKOcc.asion he left the eentro without pernfission because it might cause considerable distress to parents or relatives of the other boys. The department could fm«l 110 instance in the past live years where a boy had been returned to the centre by means of broadcasting for his whereabouts. The centre catered for the training and social readjustment of boys who showed promise of respqnding to educative treatment and vvhb were not considered by . the Courts to vvarrant admission to Borstal. For the past seven years the nature of the centre had been changed in the manner suggested by tlie aiteration of the name from Boys' Training Farm to Boys' Training Centre. Mr. McMurtrie coucluded by inviting members of the executive to yisit the farm to obtain a clearer picture of the treatment. It vva'S decided' to thank the Acting Director and to invite the' director of the centre to address the executive.