Mazengarb Report


The Mazengarb Report of 1954, formally titled the Report of the Special Committee on Moral Delinquency in Children and Adolescents, resulted from a ministerial inquiry. The report gained its name from the inquiry chairman, Queen's Counsel Ossie Mazengarb. The Report, its origins and its significance still remain key items in the mythology of 1950s New Zealand social history. This is not to deny the importance of the Report; however, its real significance has been obscured by inaccurate accounts in popular histories and newspaper and magazine articles. It is frequently cited as an example case of moral panic in New Zealand.

The Petone incident

On 20 June 1954, shortly after her mother and stepfather had reported her as missing, a 15½-year-old girl turned up at the local police station in the former Hutt Valley borough of Petone. The report details from page 11:

She stated that, being unhappy at home with her stepfather, she had' been a member of what she called a "Milk Bar Gang", which ' met "mostly for sex purposes"; she was worried about the future of its younger members, and desired the police to break up the gang.

Shortly after, following a police round up of some of those named, a moral panic ensued in New Zealand, in which the above incident played no small part among several others, including a milk bar murder in Auckland

The Inquiry

A review of New Zealand newspapers of the time reveals reports of "youths charged with indecent assault upon, or carnal knowledge of" underage females. Indeed, the inquiry's report notes this occurred " the second week of July 1954".
After an outbreak of moral panic among the public and in newspaper media, the Crown appointed the Special Committee on 23 July, and it started its work only four days later, on 27 July. With what some contemporary commentators considered unreasonable alacrity, the Committee began hearing evidence on 3 August in Wellington, completing its hearings in Auckland on 10 September. Barely ten days later, on 20 September, the Committee had reported; Hansard records that the responsible cabinet minister had already sent the report to the Government Printer for printing before its actual tabling in Parliament.
Unusually for an inquiry report of that era, the report became, one of the biggest jobs for the Government Printer at the time. It was noted that postal staff complained of the weight when carrying out another unusual task: distributing copies of the report to every household in the country.

Conclusions and recommendations

The report came up with 27 conclusions and about 20 recommendations.

Conclusions

Among the conclusions, in summary:
The recommendations covered legislative proposals, administrative suggestions and even "parental example". Highlights included:
responded to the Mazengarb Report with a special select committee appointed on September 28, 1954. Its report was due to be issued on October 1, 1955.