PUBLIC SHOULD KNOW

Hokitika Guardian, 10 September 1929, Page 6

PUBLIC SHOULD KNOW

». CRIME AMONG CHILDREN. “It is important that the public should be fully informed of cases coming before the Court so that people may appreciate the conditions which lead to them.’’ Such was the opinion expressed by Mr E. C. Cutten, S.M., in answer to a question put to him during an address on “Child Welfare” to the Avondale South Women’? Club, Auckland. The ’Welfare Act and the Juvenile Court, Mr Cutten declared, were onlv a small part of child welfare, which was attended in the home and the school, and by such organisations as the Plunket Society, Boy Scouts, Girl Guides and Church institutions. Of these, the home was the momentous! Prevention work was of much greater importance than reformative treatment. Children’s courts, said Mr Cutten, were not for punishment, but to do preventive work. In exti erne cases the child was committed to the care of the Superintendent of Child Wel-

fare, which meant that the guardianship was transferred to him. After that ,usually, the child was placed in a suitable home, where he might be brought up properly. Tn ordinary cases a child was admonished and (discharged or was placed for a period under supervision. “I think the public ought to know what is happening in the courts,” said Mr Cutten. Tie considered it questionable whether notwithstanding certain admitted advantages of publicity, it would not be preferable that proceedings in the children’s courts should be reported in the Press, names, of course, to be omitted. Power to suppress publication rests entirely with the Court itself, but in a number of places tlie right has not been exercised, and juvenile courts arc still reported.