PARENTAL CONTROL OF CHILDREN

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Volume 81, Issue 43, 13 November 1937, Page 3

PARENTAL CONTROL OF CHILDREN

-Press Agsociation.)

Criminal Careers Can Begin in ihe Home MAGISTRATE'S WARNING

(By Telegraph-

AUCKLAND, Last Night, Amendments to the Child Welfare Act with a view to compelling greater parental control, were advocated by Mr. Wyvern Wilson, S.M., who presided for the last time at a sitting of theChildren 's Court. Mr. Wilson, who, is senior Magistrate in Auckland, will commence three months' retiring leava on-Monday. 1 'The Child Welfare Act under which we have been working, was experimental legislation when it became law in 1925" and has been onee amended,"' Mr. Wilson said in addressing his associates. ' 'I think you will agree with ma that the timo has a'rrived for a further revision of the Act. "We who have been through the work knov' best the difficulties that have beset the Child Welfare Department with its various institutions. Juvenile delinquencv is in most instances attribut* able to lack oi parental control. It is so often Ihe case that the sins of tho parents are visited on the children that it leads one to adtiiire the provisions of the English Act which enables the Juvenile Court to bind over parents to exercise proper supervision over their children. ''There are other provisions in tho English Act which tend to encourag3 individual responsibility, " Mr. Wilson continued. "It is no use putting all tho responsibility for errant children on tho State'. It is far better to compel parents to look after their own children. Nature never intended that any)ne bnt parents should look after children and any regulations that tend to tessen individual responsibility are to oe deprecated. We all know in our )wn experience, that any suec'ess we aiay have met with has been very sargely due to tho fact of good upbringing, the influence of one's parents md the influence of a happy home of >ne 's own. '"This beihg the last time I shall bo presiding in your Court, I want to thank you very much for the assistanco pou have always given me," Mr. Wilson said. "Ours has been difficult work — at times it has been very difficult and very unpleasant, but somebody has to give up their time trying to keep erring children on the right path and you have given up your privata time to this very good work. I think | you deserve thanks for it and I know j how close to your hearts it has been. It j has bCen very close to my heart, too, I because I know from my own experi- ! ence in other Courts, how many crimin- j al careers are started in childhood. It is the effect of bad home influence and sometimes of bad hereditary tendencies. This is the place where these influences may be guided and the tendency checked and in that way- the Children 's Court is a Court of the utmost importance.'* Mr. J. C. Entricau, on behalf of Mr. Wilson 's associates, expressed r,egret that the Court was no longer to have the benefit of his pervices and merition-' ed the Court 's appreciation of Mr. Wilson 'e courtesv and consideration.