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 Special Committee on Moral Delinquency in Children and Adolescents) sparked primarily by two infamous and well-publicised events in New Zealand's history: the 22 June 1954 Parker–Hulme murder case (subject of the 1994 Peter Jackson film Heavenly Creatures) and the 20 June 1954 "Petone incident". The report gained its name from the inquiry chairman, Queen's Counsel Ossie Mazengarb.

The committee, appointed on 23 July 1954, convened and operated rapidly — it reported on 20 September, barely 10 days after it completed hearing evidence, 59 days after its appointment, and 55 days after hearings began. Sociologically speaking, it exemplified a case of moral panic in New Zealand.

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 (which resulted in one of the last executions in New Zealand.)

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 enquiry's report notes this occurred "[in] the second week of July 1954".

...
Wikipedia