THE STOKE ORPHANAGE.

NZ Truth, Issue 144, 21 March 1908, Page 5

THE STOKE ORPHANAGE.

SLEEPY HOLLOW NELSON AWAKENED.

How Agnew, the Absconder, was Treated.

Suffered for Years from Hernia, but Had Blazes Belted Out of Him.

The Need for Stricter Supervision.

The &toke Orphanage, unhappily, does not enjoy the most enviable of reputations, and, like any other industrial school against which the | breath of .scandal and infamy has been directed, any charge involving cruelty, inhumanity or anything of a like nature to an inmate, is always greedily seized upon by the outside world, and the worst, despite prool to the contrary, is always believed. Now, this Stoke Industrial School, or, properly speaking, the St. Mary's Industrial School, has not lived down, and has not been allowed to live down, the memories of the past, and there are many m New Zealand who do not hesitate to say that because St. Mary's Industrial School is a Roman Catholic instit/ution that fact m itself is sufficient 1 reason why the worst is always believed and feared. Far, however, from fanning the fury blasts of bitter bigotry, regardless Whether the St. Mary's Orphanage at Stoke is run by Catholics or Calathumpians, this paper can not very well ignore the latest happening at this Stoke Industrial School, the facts of wiiich are y only an eloquent reason why the State should seek to exercise full control of the unfortunately necessary system of industrial and orphanage schools. The whole bother i has arisen through the persistent escapades of an inmate named Edwin Stuart Francis Agnew, who last Monday was brought before Magistrate EyreKenny on *a charge of having absconded from the school on March 14. This young Jack Sheppard is 17 years of' age, and is described as "an Under-sized, bootless, halfclothed, dirty, and SEEMINGLY HALF-WITTED BOY ;" "The clothes lie had on would have been regarded with scorn by the poorest free street boy. He wore an ancient coat, apparently of fustian, a waistcoat and trousers to match, and a thin shirt." Moreover, according |o one disinterested pressman, "he would not give such rags (as the. boy wore) to his dog to lie on." Now, it would seem that there have been some very disquieting rumors m Nelson concerning this poor little devil's treatment by the industrial school authorities, and when the case came on for hearing, .the lawyer who ■ represented the school, asked to have the Nelson "Colonist" attached for contempt of court for having commented on a case that was sub judioe, and the Magistrate replied-, that he did not know that the case Was sub judicc. All Jbe had to do at the present was to inquire whether the accused ■belonged to the Stoke Industrial 'School, and whether he absconded ; and then to decide what was to be done with him. If the*punishinent of the boy had been tod severe he had nothing to do with that at the present time. If there had been excessive punishment a charge of . as- ! sault, could be laid. To the charge of absconding tbei friendless little wretch pleaded guilty, nevertheless evidence was taken. Richard Barry, superintendent of St. Mary's Industrial School, stated that Agnew was committed to the school by the Magistrate at Auckland on 3rd /September. 190.1, for stealing four brooches from his mother. He was committed to tl}e Auckland Industrial ; Seh6ol., having previously been convicted -of theft. On I/he 26th September, 1001, Mr Hoejben, the Secretary for Education, intimated to the, Rev. Dea-n. Ma'lwney that it had been decided to transfer Agnew from Auckland to the Stoke School. On the 14th March of this year he was still an inmate 1 v of the Stoke Industrial School. Agnew absconded on the Bth March, and was recaptured on the 14th and taken back to the school . Agnew (who was seventeen years and two, months old on the 14th Marctrt. on a.rrival at the school , was punished with a strap, winch m size was m accordance with the regulations. He , WAS PUNISHED ACROSS THE BREECHES, six strokes being administered. Agnew had tried to abscond thirteen times before Bth March. Accused ,was punished .about two o'clock m the afternoon of the 14lh March, and . ten minutes after the nunishmeiit the witness discovered that Agnew was missing. A'giTew went to the Police Station, and gave himself up. . Accused had been punished three times while under witness' charsre, and | prior to the 14th March. The first : time was on December 4th for break- ] ing into the stores at 1 a.m. \ and stealing tea, bread, sugar, meat, and salt ; on the 27th for stealing fruit from Mr Condcll's garden at Stoke ; on March 3rd for getting out of bed at 1 a.m. and disturbing the ' dormitory and th© whole of the institution by his conduct— pillow-riightying, pulling bed clothes off the other boys, etc- Accused had been under witness' observation fox 5^ • months, and' witness did not think ih-pre was any need for Agnew to be examined by a medical man as to his sanity. Agnew was of a bad moral disposition. Witness had not punished Agnew for absconding on the 14th | March. To Mr Hayes : Witness reported, to the police the absconding on the I4*th March. One of the school , men took the accused back to the school from the police station (on recapture after the earlier absconding). The boy had been, away from the Bth to the 14th, and he was punished m the presence of Mr Jackson, the head teacher, the punishment being entered m the punishment book. Witness then had no idea that the boy was suffering from, any bodily complaint. He had seen the effects of birch punishment, and witness considered that the strap used was not half so severe as the birch allowed by the regulations where there had been repeated attempts to abscond. ' To Seret.tDouffan : On the Blh

March he telephoned to the police that AgHew had escaped and Was coming to the police station to COMPLAIN OF BEING PUNISHED, and directing that the boy be kept till witness sent down for him. On the 11th March Agnew was reported as an absconder, and on the 14th he was returned to the school. The strap (produced) was seven inches shorter than that allowed by the regulations, and was 1-1 6 th of an inch m thickness. (Sergt. Dougan said that the strap apparently was a piece .of trace.) Sergt. Dougan stated that on the 14th he saw the boy before he was sent to the Orphanage. He asked the boy why be rah away, ai*d the reply was, "Because they beat me." Witness said, "Probably you deserved it," and Agnew then got into the. trap and went away. . Shortly afterthree on Sunday afternoon the boy came to the police 'station complaining that he bad bad; a beating. Witness stripped the ,boy and examined him, finding six distinct weals across the buttopks. The strokes had been fairly severely given. One 'of the weals was showing blood. .Witness did not think the weals were anything extraordinary, as the boy had just been returned to . the school. The marks showed . that they -had been given according to regulations. The boy's general appearance was rather dilapidated, and witness sent him to Dr. Wright and had the boy examined: A written report was furnished by the doctor as follows :-— Ware, , , ' Hardy-street, Nelson, • March 34th, 1908. I have this afternoon examined, at the police station, Edward Stuart Francis Agnew. Hd has six distinct marks on each of his buttocks (they quite correspond), and over his right hip joint is a large mark. These, were ' most, likely caused by a ' strap or a sticlf— a strap, most likely. The boy has evidently had a good hiding-/ but this, is the proper place to lay it on. and whether the punishment is too much for the crime I leave others to judge. . . The worst feature of the case is that the boy has a large left scrota) hernia. He has no truss to 'siiDport it. This must be seen to at once or the result I * MAY BE' VERY . SERIOUS. The boy says he has had this hernia from birth, and had a truss when he entered the Ornh-anafe, but it got burnt a-t the time of the fire. HENRY WRIGHT. M.R.C.S.. L.R.CP., and L.M. Continuing his evidence, Ser^t Dougan said that on tbe strength of that report he decided to bring the boy before the Magistrate rather than send him back to the school just then. . The Magistrate said that having, regard to the serious rupture he could not order the boy to be flop-red. The best plan probably would be to order the boy to come up for sentence when called upon, and returned to the school. He could not send him « to Burnham m his present state. The boy promised tyiat he would, leave off stealing and trying to run away, and would turn over a new leaf. The Magistrate then ordered the boy to come up for sentence when called upon. The Magistrate directed that Agnew was hot to be punished at the school for running away on the 14th. ' Mr Barry, the Superintendent of the 1 school, undertook to haye the boy medically attended to immedia r tely. This evidence speaks for itself, but it is much to 1 be regretted that Dr.. Wright lacked the moral courage to set forth m that damning certificate his opinion as to whether the puuishment meted out to this undersized and seemingly half-witted boy was too much for "the crime." What crime did the. boy commit ? The world ,at large has yet to learn that it is a crime m a boy to escape or to attempt to escape from Ms none too kindly-disposed keepers. That boy Agnew, "seemingly halfwitted" as described, showed a lot of "•gumption" m making- for the police station, where he was detained by the Sergeant, who judged it his duty to detain the waif and to bring him before the Magistrate rather than send' him back to the school, where blazes would be BELTED OUT OF HIM., m accordance with the insulations, which appear to be twisted not as the Legislature intended, not from* the common-sense view of still more common Justice, but just as it seems to suit the whim of Superintendent Barry and his satellites. When the poor little devil Agnew was advised with scorn to go to the police to- complain, he was packed off without Ms boots, and the irony of the whole business is the' boy was charged with absconding, and what is still more sublimely ridiculous, he was convicted of Vbat charge, though not judicially punished. Certainly his punishment m this hellish home, for taking "French leave," was sternly prohibited by Magistrate Eyre-Kenny, but as Mr Barry took the rep entail t<. thief and abject absconder away with him, the resulst, as. aMr J,os. J. FranUlyn ,"uts it, with even perhaps a pardonable parade of religious partiality, would fee told by "the walls of the new brick building, erected chiefly with Protestant dollars, if they had r -ears and tongue." . -£&r-' 'It was unfortunate for the Superintendent that Sergeant Doaean hurried the boy to Dr. Wright to be | medically examined. It w«s ne T er dreamed that the young "wllain" ; suffered from a scrota 1 hernia aj^j-j had suffered so f> r vrars' post. WlyM 1 recked Barry if th's boy 1 ccaf