CHILDREN OF CHARITY

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2413, 19 March 1915, Page 3

CHILDREN OF CHARITY

BOARDED OUT POSITION OF HOSPITAL BOARD The matter of the care of boarded-out children was discuss.ed at yesterday's meeting of the Wellington Hospital and Charitable Aid Board. The discussion arose out of the following recommenda- > tion which the Charitable Aid Committee asked the board to- adopt:—"That a request having been preferred that the Education Department would 6Up- , ply. particulars of the names, ages, and actual present addresses of the children in Industrial Schools for whom maintenance is payable by the board, together with the names of the foster parents in the cases of those boarded out, and a reply having been received from the Department that as a matter of principle it declines to accede to the above request, a deputation from the board shall wait upon the Minister of Education and urge him to reconsider the above decision." Mr. D. M'Laren said that the board had spent £5900 on these children last year, and would spend over £6000 on them this year. It was said that there were ten children boarded in one house, and that in another place the man of t«a house was practically a lunatic. The board paid out considerable money for ™e care of the children, and were entitled to the information sought, j. P r ' Platts-Jlills 6aid that the motion . did not quite meet the case There was i a suggestion of dual control in it, and there was something to be said in the Education Department's favour if they objected to that. The board really wished to obtain a right to visit board-ed-out children. The remedy was to nave more highly-trained inspectors than were at present employed. They should be required to pass examinations which would show that they were thoroughly trained in the care of children. There were cases of children who were not-ill enough to be sent to a doctoi, and yet were suffering from malnutrition—neglect. A properly trained nurse would detect such cases. No one, of course, desiredto detract from the good work now being done. Mr. J. Smith remarked that the board should endeavour to have put into operation a system of visiting or inspecting which would ensure that children were being brought up in satisfactory homes. Dr. F. W. Mackenzie mentioned an idea that the children should be brought up in rural communities specially designed for them. The recommendation of the committee was and the deputation to wait . on the Minister is Dr. Platts-Mills, Mrs. D. M'Laren, Rev. H. Van Staveren, Messrs. H. Baldwin. D. M'Laren, J. Smith, and D. Campbell.