The Akaroa Mail. FRIDAY. JANUARY 13, 1882. DOTHEBOY HALL OUTRIVALLED.

Akaroa Mail and Banks Peninsula Advertiser, Volume VI, Issue 574, 13 January 1882, Page 2

The Akaroa Mail. FRIDAY. JANUARY 13, 1882. DOTHEBOY HALL OUTRIVALLED.

A special enquiry has recently been held at the London School Board offices regarding the St. Paul's Industrial School in the east of London. To quote an exchange :— The inquiry has brought out a string of harrowing and heartrending stories of systematic cruelty and cowardly tyranny exercised by the oficial of that school over th»e small boys placed under their charge, which can iot be read without burning indignation and shame ; and it has also brought to light a record of failure in supervision ami inspection which will certainly make the believers in the Infallibility of school boards and school biard arrang -meats rub their eyes with astonishment For the last five or six years there has been no meeting of " managers " of the school, and although Mr Thomas Scrutlon and the Government Inspectors paid occasional visits, the school seems prac ically to have been left to the management of the ; sup-i'in'eiidaiit, a man named Hinchcliff-, and his assistants. Under this administration, a state of things was brought about compared with which that at " Dotheboys Hall," us described in j •" Nicholas Nickleby," seems to have been only moderately bad, if not actually merciful. The unfortunate boys of St. Paul's industrial School—placed there, hu-sooth ! That they might be rescued from tne d itiger of failing into criminal ways—s ■em to have been kept at starvation point, and to appease their ravenous hlinger stole even the bread given to the lion o-dog ; they were mercilessly beaten evii'i sivinl offences, and w°re cond<- -ii.cd -om .scanty allowance of bread an i x ■der i'A ;.o nupri.-O'.iuient in a dark c-'I. ..;i v'.t;- -light provocation. Such fi'Oi.i .'.:•• '»;,•;. i'.;i<i .v."-. >:t rveii with disgusting !i>-g!i:.'.';''ii' , their clothes were rag.red aa ' dM\ ; fcii-;'y slept on hard i'-.in iiLii;.;-:..els, and everything about them, oo:-" v. it'ioss to the'-ante mis, Table •;,ii'i .-h;'.ii"' :, i!;i oi-ti-eg.-ipi of the COlll;i;i;..••■'.:■ ; cMici'c'i : M.l necessities of e:,i:r ; ..h,,:. i; -.-. l.lvi that one poor •.•i;i ~i '■■', 10 -.v.'. i;i, i;.Miig unable to ;',.,!]••:; ■.■'.!■ '~'.•■ i;i.,.e,i task, ot sack-Hiak- ]!.!..'., -'■:'- !m!". With .1 bircil 1'0(1 tllO ■. :y ,|:,, !,, -''■:[■,. !,,• died. Another boy ■■■.ii: !..i;i-;..!i to, escape the torture and .. i :s ie which he was subjected by •ie- o!u,:oi-s in charge of the school. At h'-jgiii. !iov,-;;'.vr, Mrs Suit, a member of ill" L'Viil'Vi School Board, had her, -,'tt.''n!wi ,ti)-l her suspicions aroused'

■institution, and she demand for inquiry with an energy and deserve the warmest The School Board lave been strangely ction in the matter, ed her case to the succeeded in getting airy. Meantime an z\i gave a startling impetus ta public and official interest in this matter. Some of the boys of the school, driven by misery and despair, attempted to set fire to the building, and for this offence the superintendant, Hinchcliffe, had the audacity to bring eight of them before a Magistrate, and thus to court an investigation of his own conduct, iind that of those associated with him. The magistrate and Mr Justice Hawkins, befor > whom this wret lied tale was told, made fitting comments on the state of the institution, and the Home Secretary not only sent an order for the removal of the .superintendent and reorgauis tion of the school, but also made arrangemci-ts for a criminal prosecution, and meanwhile the official certificate has been withdrawn fr m the school, so that it is closed, and the I children se it away.

This sad story seems to us to show a great moral to all those interested in the management of public institutions. The whole of the blame may certainly be traced in this case to those managers of the school, who had not met for five or six years, and it is a pity that the arm of the law eanuot reach them ;ind punish them severely, as well as the actual perpetrators of those dastardly deeds. Those who have the power of supervision of public institutions have a vast responsibility, and are too apt not to be aware of it. Too often their only idea of their task is the senseless upholding of everything said or done by "those in authority under them," and by this course tbey often utterly ruin men, not naturally evil. We do not want to go to England f or the results of inefficient inspection ; the Wellington Lunatic Asylum and Mount Eden Gaol enquiries, and a host of others, are examples nearer home of the evils that spring out of irresponsible power and imperfect supervision. We cannot conclude this article more fittingly than with the following admirable lines on the subject, written by Dago net, in the " Referee " :— the black coy's lament, —a.d.1881. It was a little nigger, and he sat upon the shore— A place where very often liltle niggers sat of yore ; Arid he looked across the ocean to the happy English land (This is figurative merely—that of course you'll understand). And across the distant ocean, in his f ! incy he could see The island where the white boys are so happy and so free. For the missionaries often, who had visited the pace Had told him pretty stories of Great Britain's favored race.

There he knew the little white boy Sunday afternoon beguiled By thanking God who made him such a happy English child ; And he rolled upon his stomach, and he moaned and cried ■' Alack ! 'Guess I must ha' been a l>ad 'tin for the Lord to make me black."

Now, one day while he was weeping over tract and over hymn, Where the English boys were painted like rosy cherubim—

Lo, a frig wave washed a paper where the little nigger sat; It had blown away at Plymouth and got as far as that. There he read with much amazement of a. school lor English boys Whose proceedings in our island have just lately make a noise ; What delightful things for dinner they, if good might have to eat; How blackbeetles were a relish, and a cricket waa a treat. Then he read of blows and torture, of starvation and disease, Of a dying lad's wild effort brutal masters to appease ; Of a hell on earth, where children fought the dog to get its bone, And a blow was the last answer to a victims dying moan. Then that little nigger, leaping to his feet upon that shore, Cried '*I won't beliebe them missions— goby, dat I won't no more ! But we happy little niggers, since such blessing we enjoys, We must send off kind, good black men to

protect dem English boys."