WERAROA TRAINING FARM.

Shannon News, 21 April 1922, Page 4

WERAROA TRAINING FARM.

HIGH PRAISE FROM AUTHORITY. QUESTION OF ESCAPES CONSIDERED. In a recent issue the Palmerston Times made the following comment on the Boys’ Training Farm at Weraroa: It is quite probable that the public, who maintain this institution, may oe doing those in charge an unconscious injustice; but their inference is very

naturally drawn from the frequent escapes and escapades of these unfortunate lads, namely, that there is a. screw or a bolt loose in the system, or a nut missing from the management. It is true that the boys are

mostly derelicts, and difficult to control, but so far as one can ascertain, there is no parallel experience recorded in connection with such an institution as, for instance, Dr. Barnardo’s Homes, where ten times the number of waifs and strays are treated. Nor do we hear of escapes every lew weeks from the mental asylums, where the number may be multiplied by a hundred. The name “Training Farm" indicates the nature of the employ-

ment, which, under proper surroundings and control, should be a delightful experience to every boy, even though he may be abnormal, through want of early discipline, affection or heredity. We sympathise with the officer,in charge in the difficulties surrounding his position, and these may be all the more acute because the public know nothing about them, and therefore cannot fairly judge or even help; But our heart goes out to the boys, lest, after years of endurance and injury, they may be under a defective system or an unsuitable control: Our busy, business-like M.P. could do, and has done, at times, less important services to the State than to secure an investigation concerning the reasons for these frequent escapades. We have no suspicion as to the cause, but the public want to know, and they are entitled to the confidence of the Minister in charge. So also is the officer in charge of the Training Farm.

These remarks brought the following interesting reply from Mr Clarence E. Bartholomew, writing from Wellington. Mr Bartholomew has been a member of the Committee of the Philanthropic Society which . controls the Farm, School at Redhill, England, and can speak with some authority on the subject of reformatory treatment, lie writes to the Times:—

The recent reference in your paper to the Weraroa Training Farm does less than justice to the authorities concerned. Being on a visit to New Zealand and having been for 15 years on the management committee of the oldest and largest farm school reformatory in England, and keenly interested in boy delinquents, I was glad to have an opportunity only last week to see Weraroa, and to discuss with the responsible officers the methods adopted in New Zealand. It is only right that the public who maintain the institutions and the entire admirable system of handling these boys should know that New Zealand is -‘at the top of the tree,” and that those responsible are doing a. great national work, deserving the gratitude of the public, and of which the Dominion may be proud. The methods are in accord with the most advanced expert opinion, and, indeed, almost ahead of it—and not only in this but in other matters affecting the care of neglected and backward children. The Weraroa Training Farm is not a prison. If it were, the inmates would more often become young “gaolbirds,” instead of developing,- as the great, majorty of them do, into good, useful and law-abiding citizens. It would be easy to prevent escapes, but only at the expense of the system which has been found so efficient here and elsewhere when properly run. This depends on the development of the character of the boy in conditions of freedom as nearly normal as possible; on giving him a chance, which is often the one thing he needs; on training him by trusting him. Ji deserves to be known, too, that one of these “escapes” is Often the boy’s last wayward kick. A really “criminal” boy is almost unknown. The delinquent boy is generally one endowed, as all healthy boys should oe, wtih a spirit of mischief, but who, by reason of parental neglect or through contact with evil surroundings, has with a spirit of mischief, but who, by within reasonable bounds. That is the lesson which he has to learn. There is, of course, no fair comparison between these boys and waifs and strays. Most of the latter have known little of home or of kindness before being brought to Dr. Barnardo’s, whereas the former are those who are not suitable for, or have not vesponded to the usual probation treatmein.. ' A comparison with the mental asylums is, for obvious reasons, still less fair. To suggest that there must be something wrong with the system

or the management, because a very

? small proportion of these difficult j youngsters run away from their train- ' ing, is like condemning medicine and doctors because a small proportion ■ 1 invalids die before reaching the “allotted span.” I hold no brief for the authorities— although I am indebted to them for much courtesy in enabling me to study the institution and system, , but I am anxious to help to promote a better public appreciation of the problem of dealing with these unlucky boys. At the same time, ! am glad to have an opportuntiy of testifying from, personal observation, to the efficient and enlightened way in which it is being tackled in the Dominion.