The Maui news. [volume] (Wailuku, Maui, H.I.) 1900-current, 1921-08-19
Social Conditions On
Maui Stand in Need of
Efforts to Improve

With an attendance that was graft
tying beyond expectations the first
Maui Welfare Workers conference
was held in the Territorial building
on Wednesday afternoon. Nearly a
hundred were there and listened with
keen interest to excellently prepared
papers on various phases of welfare
work, the outstanding topics being
child welfare work and juvenile delin-
quency. None of the papers over
Tapped in scope and there was infor-
nation in the papers which was new
to large proportion of the audience,
especially those who thought that all
was well with Maui no matter what
the conditions were elsewhere.
After the meeting was called to Or
der by G.. S, Childs, head worker of
Alexander House Settlement Mrs. H.
A. Baldwin was introduced and told
comprehensively of the work that has
been done and is being carried on by
the Child Welfare Board.
Child Welfare Board
Mrs. Baldwin told of the purposes
of Child Welfare work, the assisting
OF mothers to keep their children to-
gether, to give to the children the ad-
stitutional, to relieve want, but not to
produce dependency, rather to assist
toward ultimate independence. AS to
the success of bringing families to
care for themselves without further
assistance, she said that of the first
166 families assisted only "a are now
on the list of those receiving relief;
of the first so there are only 5, and
of the first, rs only 10. She spoke of
the gratifying fact that of the coun-
ties of Hawaii, Maui leads all in ap-
preparations for such work.
One of the interesting features of
her talk was a specific report of one
of the cases by the case worker show
ing how closely each case is followed
There was many touch of human
interest in the story of the work as
she told it.
Mrs. Frank L. Hoogs followed with
the story of one particular case for
which she cared for the board of a
Japanese family where 1t would ap-
pear the mother must have been an
epileptic and where her two large
sons were brought from Japan and
now assist in the support of the
family
Juvenile Delinquency
The subject of juvenile delinquency
was taken up by Mrs. Renee White
head, appointed probation officer the
1st of July, and she told of one case
she has had, saying the time of her
service was too short to go deeply
into the subject, but she would do so
at some later time.
c. A. Puck, who has done much vol
untary probation officers work before
Mrs. Whitehead's appointment, fol-
lowed. He attributed delinquency in
children more to improper surround
ings and home conditions than to
physical disabilities and said the
number of mental detectives in his
experience was much smaller than
those affected by improper surround
ings.
Mrs. H. w. Baldwin followed with
accounts of some of the cases of girl
delinquents which she had investi-
gated and assisted in trying to re-
form and had some decidedly startling
conditions to narrate to her hearers.
The inference was to be drawn that
her experience usually showed one or
both of the parents to be responsible
for depravity in the child.
In closing the meeting Mr.. Childs
touched very briefly on a disturbing
condition he has noted in Wailuku,
the ease and frequency with which
boys are getting okolehao.
The committee which had charge
of the first meeting was continued in
office and it is expected that further
conferences will be held, at least as
often as quarterly.
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