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Story: Gangs

Mazengarb report

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Mazengarb report

A clerk at a Social Security office hands out copies of the Mazengarb report along with the family benefit in November 1954. The report, sent to every New Zealand home, was sparked by a teenage sex scandal in Lower Hutt. The report was written by the Special Committee on Moral Delinquency in Children and Adolescents, chaired by Dr Oswald Mazengarb. This and later government inquiries into youth delinquency failed to curb the rise of gangs in New Zealand.

Using this item

Alexander Turnbull Library, Dominion Post Collection (PA-Group-00685)

Reference: PAColl-1551-1055

Permission of the Alexander Turnbull Library, National Library of New Zealand, Te Puna Mātauranga o Aotearoa, must be obtained before any re-use of this image.

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How to cite this page

Greg Newbold and Rāwiri Taonui, Gangs – Gangs and society, Te Ara – the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, https://teara.govt.nz/en/photograph/28261/mazengarb-report (accessed 4 June 2026).

Story by Greg Newbold and Rāwiri Taonui, published 30 March 2011, reviewed and revised 2 October 2018 with assistance from Jarrod Gilbert, updated 1 April 2020.