GIRL'S PETITION

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 3, Issue 713, 13 December 1933, Page 5

GIRL'S PETITION

(Press Assn.-

before parliament CLAIM FOR COMPENSATION FOR WRONCFUL DETENTION SENT TO' BORSTAL

-By Telegraph — Copyright).

Wellington, Tuesday. lEfvidence- in the case of Annie'ldL lian Matheson, of Auckland, who petitioned Parliament for £1050 for alleged wrongful imprisonment, was heard before the Select Committee of the House of Representatives to-day. | petitioner was detained in a -Borstal institution at Wellington, and it was held by Mr. Justice Smith that the Magistrate had no jurisdiction in sentencing her to such detention. In .addition to claiming compensation she asked that her name be expunged from the criminal records of New Zealand. The Leader of the Opposition, Mr. M. J. Savage, was in charge of the petition, and Ml. Hall Skelton, of Auckland, appeared for the petitioner. Mr. F. Lye (Government, Waikato) w,as chairman of the committee. Also present were Messrs J. Linklater (Government, Manawatu), P. McSkimming (Ind|epende|nt Government, Clutha), R. Semple (Labour, Wellington East), and J. N. Massey (Government, Franklin). Grounds for Action The Justice Department's version was placed before the committee in a report from the under-secretary of the' Department, Mr. B. L. Dallard. It stated that on April 16 petitioner's mother told tbe Auckland police that her daughter was uncontrollable. She had run away from home two years previously, and oiice, after an absence of five days, sbe ha.d placed 'her daughter in the Mt. Magdala Convent, Christchurch, for two years. The daughter came home a week before Christmas, 1930, but kept running away. The mother requested that her daughter be arrested for vagrancy, :as she could not keep her at home. Th'e girl was taken to the watchhouse and questioned by the police. She had no money or property in her possession, and did not know where to sleep that night. She gave a statement that she had been away from home for three weeks, and had been keeping questionable company. Sent to Army Home lOln April 17, 1931, she was charged at the Magistrate's Court, Auckland, with being an idle and disorderly person, and on account of her age was remanded by Mr. F. K. Hunt, .S.M., by consen-t of the Children's Court, till May 2, and was to remain under the care of tbe Salvation Army until that date. 'On April 29 she ran away from the Army Home. On May 9 her mother informed the police that the girl was again associating with taxidrivers. She was brought to the watchhouse by her parents on May 10. She admitted in a statement to the police .that she had been out with several men in motor-cars during her period of liberty. Children's Court Sentence On May 9, at the Children's Court, tber© being no appearance of tbe girl sbe was convicted and diseharged en an idle and disorderly charge, and information was laid tbe same day under Section 13- of tbe Child Welfare Act charging her with being a delinquent child. The -Court records showed that she was ordered three years' detention at Point Halswell Borstal Institute by Mr. E. C. Cutten, S.M., on .this charge. The petitioner gave evidence, in the- course of which she denied that the remand was by consent. She declared she did not know what charg-e was made against her, and all the statements .that she had been living an immoral life were false. Replying to Mr. Semple, Mrs. Matheson said that neither she noT her husband had laid an information against their daughter. She thought that the daughter would be kept at the police station for the night. The girl had been living with respeetable people from whose home she had been taken. Inspector Cummings, Wellington, produced a statement, in which Mrs. Matheson said that she had received no notice about the proceedings. Inspector Cummings produced a constable's statement in which it was reported that the girl's father had been 1 notified. Petitioner alleged that detectives had tried to get her to make statements, which she had not -desired to make.