Report of the Special Committee on Moral Delinquency in Children and Adolescents

Hutt Val

escents it is convenient to narrate the factual happenings which caused this pro

ather, she had, since the previous Christmas, been a member of what she called a "Milk Bar Gang" which (in her own words) met "mostly for sex purposes"; she had "become tired of the sex life", was worried about the future of its younger members, and desired the police to break up

nt 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 bei

ember 1952. It speedily became apparent that the 1954 situation was much more serious in that there were approximat

on the Hutt Valley cases

2 1

involv

pregna

nvolve

r eighte

s laid

are of State 3

supervision 3

ys 7

probation

charged or otherwi

n Children'

Magistrate'

in Supreme

Court and Magistrate's Court; th

in Other

ental conditions obtain in other districts. It was reliably stated in evidence at Wellington that

se grave concern. Here again the Committee was not engaged on a fact-fi

ices 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 agre

Auckland, the Committee learned of an accumulation of sordid happenings occurring within a short space of t

eniles in the South Island had increased to any alarming extent. Such cases