The Sun 42 WYNDHAM STREET, AUCKLAND THURSDAY, DECEMBER 20, 1928 CHILD WELFARE AND THE COURTS

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 542, 20 December 1928, Page 12

The Sun 42 WYNDHAM STREET, AUCKLAND THURSDAY, DECEMBER 20, 1928 CHILD WELFARE AND THE COURTS

DOUBTS about the success of the Children’s Court as at present constituted in New Zealand have been many, and they are now given authoritative backing by the remarks of Mr. J. fe. Barton, S.M., on the eve of his departure from the Wanganui -Magisterial circuit. One of the most eminent figures among contemporary New Zealand magistrates, and especially wellknown in Auckland for his work as chairman of the Transport Commission, Mr. Barton is a man of great ability and fine ideals. Consequently his observations carry weight.

He suggests that there is room for doubt upon the value of the present system in: (1) Its relation with the Press. (2) Its rigid suppression of names. (3) The complete separation of its processes from the atmosphere of the court-room. These are just three random points on which Mr. Barton suggests study of the problem. There is a fourth, the question of occasional corporal punishment as a stinging corrective. And there are innumerable side-issues, such as the presence of policemen in uniform, the proper functions of the associates, and the many problems raised when children are taken from their parents and placed in the care of the State.

In so far as the Children’s Court is inseparably bound up with the general study of child welfare, and consequently with the wider activities of the Child Welfare Department, it is doubtful if thorough administrative success w r ill be achieved until a greater measure of departmental independence is bestowed on it. At present the Child Welfare Department is a sort of foundling clinging to the skirts of the Education Department. As far as much of its work is concerned, it has an equally close association with the Health Department. This was shown by the prominence given to some of the dangerous proposals advanced for dealing with retardate children in last session’s Mental Defectives Bill, a measure which was evolved by the Health Department. Child welfare is also a concern of the Justice Department. Police officers, health officers, and education officers—all these have an interest in it; but it cannot, in the nature of things, be their sole interest, and it would seem that better work # might be accomplished if the overlapping at the fringes were eliminated, and the Child Welfare Department made a more compact entity.

Upon the question of publicity in the Courts there is scope for wide variation in treatment. Some cases as plainly call for publicity as others do not. The main issue here is that the New Zealand Press has hitherto exercised a fine judgment, and can be trusted to exercise it again. Mr. Barton’s own views on this subject are well-known to the pressmen with whom he came in contact on his circuit. After a sitting of the Juvenile Court, he would issue them admirably-constructed reports of the proceedings ; reports that were as notable for their clarity as for their restraint. It has not been found that the system now followed in Auckland, for instance, has tended to decrease juvenile crime. The greatest deterrent that the present system overlooks is the birch. It seems a pity to send boys to the Borstal, casting them into society that may stimulate rather than subdue their rebellious tendencies, when the best corrective of all lies at hand. Cases of sheer mischief such as occasionally bring a less fortunate class of youngster before the courts are not uncommon at boys’ schools. There the application of the cane has a salutary effect. After the birch, the tactful supervision of child welfare officers—then we would have fewer youngsters running wild for the sake of getting a thrill out of their adolescent years.