NEW ZEALAND

REPORT OF THE SPECIAL COMMITTEE

ON

MORAL DELINQUENCY

IN

CHILDREN AND ADOLESCENTS

Laid upon the Table of the House of Representatives by Leave

20 September 1954.

The Right Honourable the Prime Minister,
Wellington.

Sir,

Having taking into consideration the matters referred to us on 23 July
1954, we submit herewith the report and recommendations upon which we
are all agreed.

Accompanying the report, for purposes of record, are four volumes
containing the evidence of the witnesses who appeared before us and a
large file of the submissions which were made in writing.

We have the honour to be, Sir,

Your Obedient Servants,

Chairman

Dr Oswald Chettle Mazengarb, Q.C.
 

Members

Mrs Rhoda Alice Bloodworth, J.P. (Children's Court).

Mr James Leggat, E.D., M.A., Headmaster, Christchurch Boys' High School.

Dr Gordon Logie Mcleod, LL.B. (N.Z.), M.B.Ch.B. (N.Z.), D.P.H. (Eng.), Director, Division of Child Hygiene, Department of Health.

Mrs Lucy Veronica O'Brien, Vice-President of Women's Auxiliary of Inter-Church Council on Public Affairs: Arch-Diocesan President, Catholic Women's League.

Rev. John Spenser Somerville, M.C., M.A., Chairman of the Inter-Church Council on Public Affairs.

Mr Francis Nigel Stace, B.E.(Elec.-Mech.), B.E.(Mech), President, N.Z. Junior Chamber of Commerce.
 

Secretary

Len Joseph Greenberg, O.B.E., J.P.

(1) Sensational Press Reports

In the second week of July 1954 various newspapers throughout the Dominion featured reports of proceedings in the Magistrate's Court at Lower Hutt against youths charged with indecent assault upon, or carnal knowledge of, girls under 16 years of age.

The prosecuting officer was reported as saying that:

He also stated that:

A few weeks previously reports had appeared in the press of statements made by a Child Welfare Officer and a Stipendiary Magistrate that juvenile delinquency (meaning delinquency in general and not only sexual delinquency) had more than doubled in recent years, and that in many cases the offenders came from:

Such statements naturally provoked a good deal of private and public comment throughout the Dominion. The anxiety of parents deepened, and one leading newspaper asserted editorially that:

There is room for difference of opinion as to whether or not the ensuing public discussion of sexual offending was desirable. On the one hand it provoked many conversations on the subject between children themselves and a noticeable desire to purchase newspapers on the way to and from school. On the other hand the focusing of attention on the existence of the peril to school children caused many parents, temporarily at any rate, to take a greater interest in the training and care of their children than they might otherwise have taken; it caused some heads of schools to arrange for sex instruction; and it also resulted in a public demand that something should be done to bring about a better state of morality in the community.

(3) A World-wide Problem

There have been waves of sexual crime in various countries at various times.

Juvenile delinquency itself has been the subject of much research (especially in the United States) during the past fifty years. But although such offences as indecent exposure and sexual assault by juniors have been included in published figures, no special mention has been found by this Committee of the aspect of sexual delinquency now being discussed in New Zealand. What is entirely new in New Zealand (and probably in other places, too) is the attitude of mind of some young people to sexual indulgence with one another, their planning and organization of it, and their assumption that when they consent together they are not doing anything wrong.

Clergymen and publicists in various parts of the world have been declaiming about illicit sexual practices and their effects on young people, but this is the first time that any Government has set up a Committee to sift the available data on sexual misbehaviour with a view to finding the cause and suggesting a remedy.

The extent of juvenile immorality in New Zealand may have been greatly magnified abroad. If the good name of this Dominion has been sullied by these reports, the Committee hopes that any damage may be repaired by setting out the facts in their true perspective and by demonstrating that we can, and will, do something in the interests of morality which may also give a lead to other countries.

On 23 July 1954 a Special Committee was appointed by the Government with the following Order of Reference:

The Committee held its first meeting on Tuesday, 27 July, to determine points of procedure and to make arrangements to hear all who desired to make submissions. There were placed before the Committee files of letters which had been written to Ministers of the Crown, and hundreds of newspaper clippings, relating to this topic. Some days were occupied in the sorting and reading of this material in anticipation of the task which lay ahead.

Altogether 145 persons (18 on more than one occasion), appearing either in a representative capacity or as private individuals, were heard. In addition, 203 written submissions were made by interested organizations and private persons, and a large volume of relevant correspondence, addressed direct to the Committee, was considered. A list of the persons who appeared before the Committee and of the organizations or societies which made either written or oral representations is attached.

It should here be observed that the Committee, not having the powers of a Commission of Inquiry, could not summon witnesses before it. All officers of the Crown, and all public agencies from whom information was sought, were helpful. Much of the evidence, however, was secondary or hearsay evidence. The Committee had not the power to trace some of the stated facts back to their source.

It was thought undesirable to interview any of the children involved in recent happenings. Reliance had to be placed on information regarding each individual made available by the police and Child Welfare Officers, and, in some cases, by the heads of their respective schools. Similarly, there was much secondary evidence of indecent behaviour and of other facts said to have been derived from reliable sources. The absence of direct evidence on some of these matters, however, did not prevent the Committee from looking at the problem in its broad general aspects, and from reaching conclusions which could not be affected by a closer scrutiny of some of the individual matters narrated to the Committee.

(1) The Hutt Valley Cases

Before proceeding to examine the extent of sexual laxity among children and adolescents it is convenient to narrate the factual happenings which caused this problem to assume such large proportions in the public mind in July and August last.

The procedure followed was for the parents to be visited at their residences by a constable in plain clothes, told the nature of the inquiry, and informed of the desire of the police to interview the children at the police station. When a parent and child attended at the time appointed the parent was informed that, either through a sense of shame or fear of the parent, the child might not make a full disclosure of the facts known to her. Some parents consented to their children being interviewed alone; others desired, and were allowed, to remain for the questioning. After each interview the parents were permitted to read the statements of their children and to sign them before the children themselves were asked to sign.

The disclosures thus made, immediately recalled certain similar occurrences in the same district during October/November 1952. It speedily became apparent that the 1954 situation was much more serious in that there were approximately three times as many children dealt with and that three of the children had been involved in the earlier trouble.

For purposes of comparison the Hutt Valley cases are set out as follows:

(2) Cases in Other Districts

It cannot be supposed that sexual misbehaviour was confined to the Hutt district. Similar environmental conditions obtain in other districts. It was reliably stated in evidence at Wellington that if a girl elsewhere were to carry her story to the police similar revelations would be made there.

In Auckland matters came to the knowledge of the Committee which do cause grave concern. Here again the Committee was not engaged on a fact-finding mission, but was seeking to evaluate the evidence in a broad way.

It appears that, a few weeks before the Hutt cases were reported, the headmaster of an intermediate school informed the police of a case of theft of money by a schoolboy who was found to have £22 in his wallet. In the course of their inquiries into this the police were started on a train of investigation into sexual practices of children on their way home from school, at the homes of parents, and elsewhere. As a result, about 40 boys and girls in the 12—15-year-old group (but including also a girl of 9 years) were implicated. In addition to this, there were two cases before the Court in which several girls had given evidence of their agreement to sexual intercourse with older men. One of the accused men has recently been sentenced to a term of imprisonment, while the other is still awaiting trial. As this latter case, and also a charge of murder against a boy aged 14, are still sub judice, the Committee is unable to comment on any of the factors involved.

This much may, however, be said that, from the police, welfare officers, a headmaster, and social workers in Auckland, the Committee learned of an accumulation of sordid happenings occurring within a short space of time which people who regard themselves as men of the world could scarcely believe possible in this Dominion.

No submissions were presented to the Committee that sexual offending by juveniles in the South Island had increased to any alarming extent. Such cases as were mentioned to the Committee followed previously recognized patterns.

(1) Difficulties of Comparison in Absence of Statistics

Charges of unlawful carnal knowledge or indecent assault arise, for the most part, from complaints made by females. From feelings of chivalry or other reasons it is not in the nature of the male to inform on the female. The common experience is that a charge of sexual impropriety comes from information supplied by the female. So long as a girl is prepared to be silent, the offenders remain unknown. As with older people, so also with children.

Whether sexual laxity has been increasing must be a matter largely of impression based, perhaps, upon inference from certain known facts. On this matter there is room for a wide divergence of opinion. If policemen, teachers, or social workers in the Hutt district had been asked in June of 1954 whether immorality had increased there, they would probably have replied that the wave of 1952 had receded and matters were back to normal. Yet a month later that district had achieved an unenviable, and even unfair, reputation in this respect.

Sad to relate, the cases in respect of which the police took action in the Hutt do not represent the full extent of known sexual immorality among juveniles there. This is shown by the following pieces of evidence:

(2) Unreliability of Available Statistics for Comparative Purposes

The previous section was written to show the difficulty of obtaining a comparison between vice at one period and that at another. This section is to indicate the difficulties which arise in making comparisons (even when figures are available) between different sections of the people at different times and between different groups of people.

(a) Sexual Crime Among Adults

(b) Statistics of Juvenile Delinquency

The figures compiled for the Committee by the Superintendent of the Child Welfare Division show that:

The following is a fair selection of these figures (alternate years being taken):