DESTITUTE CHILDREN

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2491, 18 June 1915, Page 7

DESTITUTE CHILDREN

BOARDING OUT SYSTEM EXTRAORDINARY POSITION Some rather startling information, as to tho conditions under which destitute children aro boarded out under the Industrial Schools Act, was contained in a report submitted to tho Wellington Hospital and Charitable Aid Board yesterday by the Charitable Aid Committee. The committee first presented a letter received from the Secretary of the Education Department, under date May 8, the contents of which were as follow:—"It ha 6 been reported to the Minister of Education that recently some members of your board visited one or more of the' homes at , in which children under his control are boarded out, and he directs me to ask you if this Teport is correct, and, if so, to favour him with a statement of the circumstances in which the visit came to be made." The Board's Liability. The committee recommended that a, reply be sent to the Secretary of the Education Department in terms of the ■sub-joined:— "At the meeting of the board, held on March 18 last, the Charitable Aid Committee presented a recommendation that a deputation from the board should wait upon tho Minister of Education and Hospitals aud ondeavour to obtain the reconsideration of a decision given by the former by letter dated March 11 that information as to tho present localities of children boarded out under the Industrial Schools Act must, as a matter of principle, be refused. This decision had bean given in reply to a letter forwarded, at the instance of the Charitable Aid Committee, to the Education Department on February 6, asking to be informed of the nanies, ages, and present localities of the children abovo referred to. Tho considerations which led up to the abovo actions were, as was explained to tho board at the time, as follows:—That the number of children under committal and chargeable to the board is 323; that the present annual charge for these children is, approximately, and that ky far tho greater proportion of these children have beon committee at tho instance of the board, through the Charit--0 A 1!1 Committee; that tho wolfaro of the children involved in charitable aid cases forms by far tho most important and the most difficult problem of charitable aid administration, and imparts to it its heaviest responsibility; that, inasmuch as consideration for the welfare of destitute childron demands, in many cases, their separation from their mothers, who are their natural guardians, it is in the highest degree incumbent on tlio board, when effecting such separation, to satisfy itself absolutely and at first hand that tho new conditions are a justification therefor; that disquieting ntinours have, from timo to time, reached the Charitable Aid Committee with res'*™ to tho conditions undOT which children under committal have, in some cases, been boarded out; that, in tlio past, the board has had, and at present still has, no means whatever ol satisfying itself upon-this vital point."

Some Rumours. "The recommendation referred to at the commencement of this memorandum ivas adopted, and a deputation was duly appointed. _ Before, however, waiting upon the Ministers the members were summoned to meet and arrange their procedure. This meeting was held on March 30,' under tho presidency of tho then chairman of the board. "In the courso of the business the rumours which had reached momberß of tho Charitable Aid Committee were referred to. The basic principle of tho boarding-out sy3tom was discussed, and it was shown that tho essence of that principle was tho provision of a homo life as opposed to that of an institution. It was recalled that what tho boardingout system was intended and claimed to effect was tho distribution of theso unfortunate children in respoctviblo families into which (hoy would bo absorbed, and in the strict sense affiliated That it was thus, by fusion with an existing family, that the stigma of iud'j. gence was to bo avoided and the spirit of independence allowed its natural development. These wore the conditions of whose existence the belief was assailed by rumours of aggregation of rhildren under circumstances tho very reverse. "It was pointed out, however, thai, rumours are notoriously unreliable, and that to approach the Ministers with such would be at once impertinenl anil futile. It was felt that unless the deputation could go with facts it had better remain away. Unfortunately, actual first-hand evidence was not obtainable; the meeting was supplied with plenty of rumour, but no proof. It, therefore, decider) to tat a, rumour for itaill, and certain of