PUNISHMENT OF GIRLS.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 62, 6 December 1907, Page 8

PUNISHMENT OF GIRLS.

THE TE ORANGA HOME INCIDENT. STATEMENT I!Y THE HON. G. FOWLDS. (DT TELEGRAPH—SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT.) ' Auckland, December 5. Whilst tho Hon. Geo. Fowlds was speaking at the social given to Mr. Poole, M.P., last evening, soinoono asked him: ''What about the Hogging of women ?" In reply, Mr. J) owlds said that he did not think ho. was such an inhuman monster as somo people had ondeavoured to make out. He had threo daughters of his own, and he did not think anyone would accuse him of harshness to them. Ho had no desire that the children under the caro of tho Departments within his control should receive worse treatment- than ho would liko his own danghtors to receive under similar circumstances. (Applause.) A great deal of what had appeared in tho newspapors, in regard to the To Oranga Home had boon exaggerated, and he wonld hero say that tho true. test of the value of any method of treating either boys or girls lay in the success of that metliod. The results of. tho treatment, not only of the inmates of the To Oranga Home ; but of the boys and girls in other similar institutions, had been most surprising, and he believed he was justified in saying that 'the percentage of those who came into the hands of' the. police after passing through the institutions was less than tho average percentage of the rest of the community ot New Zealand. That, he claimed, was a marvellous record. Speaking of tho manageress of the To Oranga Homo, Mr. Fowlds said that there was not a more kindly-disposed woman in New Zealand. The punishment inflicted in the particular cases in question had boon of an exceptional nature, owing to the exceptional circumstances surrounding them. There was no desire that these methods of punishment should bo repeated, ■ but it was impossible to accomplish reforms all at once. For a considerable time the managomcht of the Heme and tho Department had been-asking for a moro effective system of classification. He. had determined on providing this, and when what ho proposed was completed a repetition of the mothods of punishment objected to would be impossible • . .