The Gisborne Times PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING GISBORNE, NOV. 15, 1906.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXIV, Issue 1933, 15 November 1906, Page 2

The Gisborne Times PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING GISBORNE, NOV. 15, 1906.

A pathetic picture occupies the centre pages of a publication called “ Night and Day ” just received from the Hon. Sec. of Dr Barnardo’s Homes National Incorporated Association, with a quest that some reference should be made in these columns to its contents. Although the pamphlet comprises some sixteen pages of letterpress giving details of what is being done in the way of charity in connection with these homes, and exhortations from Lord Brassey, the Lord Bishop of Kensington and others who have taken a deep personal interest in this great work, there is nothing so eloquent—there could be nothing more eloquent—than the central picture which depicts the faces of the 2-112 children admitted to the homes during the year 1905, and we arc told that, large as this number is, it merely represents the selections from J 2.095 oh whose behalf it was sought to gain admission. How many waifs and strays now occupy the Homes or have already passed through them we know not, nor is it necessary to dwell upon the point, for the picture sufficiently illustrates the gigantic nature of the work so nobly started

and carried out by tho founder of the Homos, tho Into Ur Barnardo, and continued after his death by the philanthropic association of which End Brassoy is President, and tho Jit, Hon. Sir John Gorst, P 0 , now in Christchurch, is a ruling spirit. That thoso philanthro, ists havo been caablod to koop this gigantic work going upon voluntary subscriptions is a magnificent testimonial to tho charactor of tho British r'aco ; but whom it is romomborcrl that only a very small proportion of tho subjects of Ilia Majosty tho King havo any notion of tho existence of tho movomont or of tho necessities of tho Association that has taken up Dr Bnrnardo’s iifo’s work since his death, it will bo soon that tho noble spirit of philanthropy is not so dormant, ns might bo conjoc Mired, To feed thoso hord-'S of destitute chiidron tho largo sum of dffilO per day is required, and a groat deal more is wanted for clotliing and other necessaries, so that it cannot bo wondered ut if at times tho Association’s exchequer is sorely pressed to moot tho demands upon it, or that all the children who sook admission to the Homes cannot bo accommodated A certain degree of incredulity on the part of Now Zealanders in regard to the facts abovo related is perfectly pardonable, for iu this country wo are free from the conditions that obtain in older communities, and although wo are not altogether free from poverty Imre in >bo four cities where, it does exist it may generally bo traced directly to dissipation, extravagance, or idleness on the part nf parents. Yet there are cases of poverty that are due to sheer misfortune, ami the sufferers in these cases are seldom heard of because, though they arc the most deserving, thoy try to hide their 1 roubles rather than to expose them. Butin Eugland tho conditions are different, and thou sands of families are produced by parents who cannot earn sufficient for their own personal needs ; criminals and beggars produce families by the hundred, and children a 3 soon as they can toddle aro left to the tonder mercies of the policemen who find them wandering in tho crowded streets and bye ways It is a deplorable condition of things for which charity is but a palliative and not the proper remedy : but until the proper remedy is found and put into practice the philanthropic spirit shown by tho Association of which we havo been speaking is as necessary to she welfare of the nation as the British feet itself is. Speaking on that side of the question at the last annual meeting of the Association, Sir John Gorst said, “ There ought in our country to be no such thing as a destitute child. More than three hundred years ago the legislation of this country, passed iu the time of Queen Elizabeth, made provision whereby eveiy destitute child ought to be under the care of the nation at large ; and although it is quite true that, owing to the ineffective organisation of our local government, there aro in our country thousands and thousands of destitute children, yet, if the law were properly administered, and if the arrangements necessary wore properly raado by a central and local authority, every child in this country which is deprived of the support of its parents is entitled by law to public relief at the hands of the community.” Now that will be nows to most people, and the wonder is that for three huudred years in the country that leads tho world in civilised methods of government the machinery necessary for giving effect to its own laws has never been perfected, while the necessity for so doing becomes more and more pressing as the years roll by. Perhaps the explanation is to be found in the fact that legislators as a rule aro not philanthropists, and that the price of consols, or Government stocks on tho Stock Exchange, is not affected by tho condition of the “submerged tenth,” Stiil the question is one that must sooner or later bo tackled by the State if Britain is to retain her true position among the nations of tho earth for the preservation of a healthy citizenship is one of tiie main essentials to that ond, and that can never bo realised while the festering disease of poverty gnaws at her vitals and destroys her manhood Meanwhile philanthropy stops in and is doing it;; patt most nobly in prossrv-. fug the lives of thoso thousands of children, who, if left to themselves and the tender mercies of the State, woulJ either die of starvation or become a menace to the State itself. The orga-j nisation deserves tho most liberal i oncouragemenfc and support, even though it is but a palliative in. f,hej social sense. :