Following hard upon the newspaper reports of these cases in the Hutt Valley there was the news that two girls, each aged about 16 years had been arrested in Christchurch on a charge of murdering the mother of one of them. It soon became widely known (and this fact was established at their subsequent trial) that these girls were abnormally homosexual in behaviour.

There were also published in the press extracts from the annual report of the Justice Department to the effect that sexual crime in New Zealand was, per head of population, half as much again as the sexual crime in England and Wales. The reasons why the Committee does not accept this statement at its face value are stated later under [Section IV (2)].

(2) Press Reports from Overseas

In view of the fact that the happenings in the Hutt Valley were reported in all New Zealand newspapers, and by many newspapers in Australia and Great Britain, the Committee points out that the increase of sexual delinquency is not confined to any one district or any one country.

It cannot be too strongly asserted that the great majority of the young people of the Hutt Valley are as healthy-minded and as well behaved as those in other districts, whether in New Zealand or elsewhere. It just happened that, through the voluntary confession of one girl in Petone, many cases were immediately brought to the knowledge of the police.

In the absence of comparable statistics from other countries, the Committee can merely quote from some of the reports received in New Zealand at about the same time that the Hutt Valley cases were reported.

(a) England

In Monmouthshire last year there was an increase of 88 per cent in sexual offences. The biggest increases recorded were for indecent assault on females—132 in 1953, compared with 75 in 1952—and for offences against girls under 16 years of age. In his annual report the Chief Constable states that this shocking record is a further indication of the general lowering of moral standards ...—The "Police Review" (London), 19 February 1954.

(b) New South Wales

POLICE UNCOVER WILD TEENAGE SEX ORGIES