The New Zealand Times (PUBLISHED DAILY). MONDAY, APRIL 4, 1881.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXVI, Issue 6235, 4 April 1881, Page 2

The New Zealand Times (PUBLISHED DAILY). MONDAY, APRIL 4, 1881.

A Bill for the Boarding out of Destitute Children has been passed by the Legislative Assembly of New South Wales, and a similar measure might be well engrafted on the statutory law of this colony. It steers clear ot any interference with charitable institutions, but has for its object the avoidance of herding children together in constantly increasing numbers in already overcrowded reformatories and industrial schools. Though the establishments of this kind in New Zealand are really excellent institutions, and the management thoroughly efficient, yet circumstances are continually cropping up which show that the provision for the control and training of destitute children is inadequate, and in some eases totally inoperative in producing any permanently good results. In the New South Wales Assembly the argument was advanced that a measure legalising the boarding out of children was unnecessary, because the experiment had been for some time in operation, through the instrumentality of charitable associations ; but it was shown that, beyond a certain limit, it would be unwise to place the keeping of public interests and the expenditure of public money in the hands of voluntary and hence legally irresponsible bodies. It was deemed more desirable that the system initiated by private associations, and so far productive of good results, should, in its necessary expansion, merge into the direct control of the Gavernment, be made a subject of annual vote with other items of charitable aid, and be admimsteren vy »u umcoi aua sut»rdinates directly responsible to the State. The Sydney Daily Telegraph thus comments upon the subject:

The experiment has been tried without a law, and the introduction of a Bill may be taken as an official recognition of its success. In many cases foster parents acquire a strong affection for their wards, and by adopting them relieve the State ct all responsibility and all cost, while the children themselves are better cared for than would be possible under any other conditions. Nor is it found that they are badly treated where they are not adopted. On the contrary, it is seldom that any distinction is made between them and their guardians' own children. They grow up, in fact, as members of the family, with all the social ties and affections of ordinary mortals ; and it stands to reason that they will make better and more respect? bla members of society than if they were dragged up in great public institutions with no moral restraints and no one for whose good opinion they cared. . . . . Receiving houses will be required in which to place the children prior to their being boarded nut, and to which it should be necessary some of them should return in the event of their foster parents leaving or from other causes. But when the boarding-out system is in full operation, a very modest institution would suffice for these purposes. The chief point, and that upon which the successful working of the Act must largely depend, will be the efficient discharge of duty by those officers who are to have control of the boarding out of the children, and the intelligent cooperation of the visiting inspectors. No insuperable obstacle need be looked for in this direction, and we are therefore justified in anticipating the successful and satisfactory working of the Act.

In Tasmania and Victoria tlie system has been for some time in operation with the best possible results, and its adaptability to the emergencies of an increasing responsibility in this colony deserves earnestconsideration. Poverty is not very prevalent in New Zealand, nor vice and crime rampant; but one source of grave anxiety to the guardians of the peace and administrators of justice is the effective means of repressing atendency to misdemeanors among the number of destitute children thrust upon their care. The reformatories and refuges for juvenile offenders already established do good work, but the buildings are always crowded, and a decision must soon be come to whether to make costly additions or adopt a system of boarding out young social waifs and strays with people of honest repute willing for a moderate consideration to accept the responsibility of their nurture and also of their training in useful walks of life. The same rule which applies to the support of reformatories and industrial schools might be made applicable to the boarding-out system. Boroughs and counties might be called upon to furnish a quota of the necessary funds for cases arising within their boundaries, and philanthropic societies, now doing good work among the destitute and forlorn, need not necessarily be less active in well doing, because of State supervision, and the assistance of recognised authority, to ensure that the objects of their care shall receive the best possible treatment and training that circumstances will permit. Nor is there any reason to suppose that difficulty would ensue in finding heads of households willing to accept the responsibility of adopting foster children, so long as the State furnished the means for their clothing and subsistence. Though households without olive branches therein, and plenty of them, are the exceptions and not the rule, there are hundreds of country settlers to whom the services of strong lads and young

lasses are invaluable, and to them the care of destitute children might be well entrusted. A class of useful laborers and artisans and reliable domestic helps would be the result, and the cost, while even less than that of the present barrack system, would be recouped a hundredfold in many direct and indirect ways.