Timaru: With a view to minimising or preventing the evil of abortion, the Federation of New Zealand Justices of the Peace decided at the annual conference at Timaru yesterday to urge the Government to amend the Social Security Act to provide three months ante-natal treatment and maintenance in an approved home for unmarried women and deserted wives and the adoption at birth of the child by the State, subject to the consent of the mother, the future arrangements for the child's maintenance to be made without publicity to the mother.
Women jurors were favoured by the federation.
Suggestions that a woman justice should share the bench in all domestic and affiliation cases and that a married woman should be appointed to the Bench of the Domestic Relations Court when it was established were also approved.
The demoralising effect of supplying intoxicating liquor to minors, a practice which is claimed to be becoming a serious problem in the social life of the country, was stressed by speakers, and it was decided to ask the Government to consider the advisability of introducing legislation whereby any person who supplies by way of gift or otherwise any intoxicating liquor to any person appearing to be under the age of 21 years is guilty of an offence and liable to a fine of 50 or imprisonment for three months.
- March 16