CHILD TRAINING FOR THE NATION.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXII, Issue 810, 10 February 1910, Page 4

CHILD TRAINING FOR THE NATION.

An interesting little album entitled “ For God and Country ” is being issued by Dr Baruardo’s Homes, giving in a very attractive form a good general impression of the ramifications of this great work. Photographs are shown of some of the “ ever-opeu doors ” throughout the country for the reception of destitute children at any lime of the day or night, and the pictures include the proposed Boys’ Garden City, with a general outline ol the scheme.

12.376 applications have, we learn, been made to the homes during the past 12 mouths, and 2,558 children, many of them physical sufferers, have, during the same period, been admitted from the ranks of the fatherless, the motherless and the destitute ; 69,550 children in all have been rescued by these homes in the past 43 years, and 8,595 are now under their care. Two hundted and thirty-eight further applications come to them every week from all over the Kingdom. These homes have been described as the best kind of Christian Imperialism. They effect a work for the State in many lespects more successful than that carried on by the poor law. In dealing with the whole problem of child rescue and training, they use their best efforts to eradicate any taint of pauperism and to bring up every boy and girl in the high principles of religion, and with that independence, yet ordered discipline, which the best home-life secures. The boys are taught trades and the girls domestic pursuits, to fit them for the battle of life, and to present them from swelling the ranks of the unskilled unemployed. Twenty-one thoutand six hundred and thirty eight have been emigrated to Canada, and 98 per cent, are successful, proving that the methods adopted are on a right basis. The Homes are in urgent need of support to carry on the winter’s work in all its efficiency. The honorary director is Mr William Baker, M.A., D.1y8., iS to 26, Stepney Causeway, lyondon, K., and ir - ill relieve his burdens and the burdens of the Council if readers who sympathise with this work would remember it when making out their Christmas cheques and postal orders.