"A PLEA FOR JUSTICE."

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1137, 26 May 1911, Page 5

"A PLEA FOR JUSTICE."

THE DEPARTMENTAL ANSWER. In a. letter headed "A "Plea" for Justice" and signed "R. Rice, Te Rehunga, Dannevirke," the writer drew public attention through'..these columns to the .case of a . boy -..named Tate, who . had; been committed to an" industrial school, and was said to have , contracted heart. disease since, he was taken away from his parents. The offence which had led to the boy's 'committal to the .institution was opening a letter given him by his school-teacher to post, and taking some postal notes out of it. Two of the notes, it wa9 said, blew away,'and he look tho other (for 55.) home to his mother. It was admitted that the boy was "not very bright intellectually," and the writer urged that he should be restored, on probation, if necessary, to "a good home, healthful surroundings, and the affection of his parents." A Dominion reporter was informed yesterday by Sir Edward Gibbes, Secretary for Education, that this case had received a good-deal-of attention from the authorities. Hβ said that the boy was committed to the Burnham Industrial School by a magistrate. AVith the merits of the commitment the' Education Department had nothing to do. Its responsibility began only wh«n the boy was presented at the school with the magistrate's warrant for his detention. The obiect of the institution was to reform and not to penalise, and it might no doubt havo been considered that the boy needed to be under more effeotive control than that which his own home offered. He had bwn previously convicted of the theft of a bicycle. The duration of the detention at an institution of tho kind was, until the youth reached'the age of 21. a matter for the discretion of the Minister, who was guided by reports as to the lad's character, and the proposals that might he made for his care if he was allowed to go out. The parents in no case had any control over a boy in one of thoso institutions. This particular boy had a eerions physical weakness. Tho condition of his heart had always been carefully watched since ho was admitted to tho institution, and there was no truth in the statement that tho treatment there had been prejudicial to his condition. Since his admission he had improved in even- *¥[> e «ept as to the organic weakness referred to. Jo^sTase.! 0 furfe .-^uiries