THE GLOBE. THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 28, 1882. INDUSTRIAL SCHOOLS.

Globe, Volume XXIV, Issue 2644, 28 September 1882, Page 2

THE GLOBE. THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 28, 1882. INDUSTRIAL SCHOOLS.

Iv an article last month we commented on a defect in the working of the Orphanage and the School at Burnham, calling attention to the fact that many persona whose duty it is to contribute to the support of children at these institutions, and who are far hatter able to supply money than many parents who have large families to bring np, do not give a sixpence and have not given a sixpence for years past. As regards the Orphanage, it is safe to say that there are hundreds of pounds dne to it on this account alone. With respect tp Burnham School, although the polico do now and then make a special effort, yet nothing like sufficient energy is used to sheet home the liabilities accrued in respect of children there to the personi legally responsible. The subject is one that should uot he allowed to drop, because, on the one hand, the persons liable are distinctly shirking their moral and legal responsibilities, and because, on the other hand, the taxpayers of the colony are deeply interested in the question, having to supply that money which should come from other sources. Some stringent measures should certainly be taken to call the defaulters to account, and it might be well to consider whether the publication of their names as a pre- ' liminary measure might not have a desirable effect. The dread of exposore is one of the strongest of feelings when a man is acting otherwise than as ha should. Even a threat of such a pro* seeding might have an electrical effect on certain of the individuals who at present are smiling in secret at the laxity of existing regulations. If society at large could distinctly be blamed for the larger number of children that are committed to Industrial Schools, soma show of an argument might be used to prove that it should bear the brunt of th* cost for their rearing, and that tax-payers should not be very strict with regard to enforcing payment from those who are legally liable. But the case is otherwise. In his report on Industrial Schools, Mr. Habens points out that, in by far the greater number of cases where committals are made, the parents of the committed children are to blame. Of 282 children committed, no less than 180 were committed through the misconduct of those who brought them into the world. This is a somewhat startling fact, and it opens out another question, namely, whether the penalties incurred by neglectful parents are commensurate with the offence. If the punishment imposed is of such a light character as to have no deterrent effect on other thriftless and heartless parents, it is very evident that the state of the law as it now exists does not meet the occasion. We will give an instance to show how little the law, in its present state, is capable of grappling with the evil to which we are alluding. The case occurred not long since in Lyttelton. A man, long invalided, died, leaving a wife and four children in possession of a freehold house and land. The woman for years had, without unduly taxing her ability to work, made a comfortable living for the family. But directly, her husband’s funeral was over, and, though surrounded by hosts of practical friends to encourage and assist her, she set about systematically neglecting her family. An infant in arms was left for days, and indeed weeks, to be looked after by its sisters, who themselves were soon reduced to a state of semi-starvation and rags. She was warned that her children would be taken from her, but this seemed only to encourage her in her course of indifference, until, in due course, she had accomplished what, to many of those who had befriended her, appeared to be her fixed intention, namely, to get rid of her offspring. Two were sent to the Orphanage and the infant to Burnham. Tha eldest boy was taken charge of by an employer. Freed of these encumbrances, it is hardly surprising to learn that the woman fell iuto still more vicious habits, and three months in Addington was tried by way of reforming her, a step which, however, failed of its object. Now, here were two or three hundred pounds’ worth of property unfortunately left in the woman’s possession, to be squandered piecemeal in the pleasures of vice, while tha State was saddled with a large expense in rearing and educating the children If an adequate punishment had been meted out to tha woman for neglecting her children when she first commenced her vicious courses, she might have been stopped from persevering in them. As it was, she spent the money

which had been accumulated for iho benefit of Ida children by her late huehand before his illness, and she did so with the greatest apparent impunity. The above case is only one of a number that might be quoted as showing who powerless the law at present is to stop such delinquencies. Moreover, it is not only those parents who are absolutely Ticions who palm off their children on the State. It could readily he shown how, in other instances, whole families of small children have been cast upon the hands of the taxpayers by parents capable of supporting them, and who have no sooner escaped from their legal responsibilities than they have either betaken themselves to another colony, or to some place beyond the jurisdiction of the Magistrates. It would seem, indeed, as if some law sharp and stern were needed to put an end to the evils to which we have drawn attention. The total want of any feeling of moral obligation on the part of the greater number of the parents of those children who find their way to New Zealand Industrial Schools is a fact that cannot, and ought not to be, any longer overlooked. The management of such schools and the want of a good system of classification of the inmates is another point which we have at present no time to discuss; hut it has already gained a fair share of public attention. Our present remarks have been devoted to an endeavor to throw more light on another phase of the neglected children question.