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

dence. 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.

III. Narrative

=(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