A STITCH IN TIME.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 171, 28 October 1910, Page 2

A STITCH IN TIME.

j FEEBLE-MINDED GIRLS A MENACE. ! i By Telegraph.—Press Association. j Auckland, Yesterday. The problem in connection with, the' work of such organisations as St. Mary's Homes at Otahuhu was referred to in the annual report on the homes presented to the Auckland Anglican Synod this afternoon by the chairman of the committee of management. The Rev. Canon Mac Murray, jn the report, stated: "The future of the feebleminded girls of the community who drift into our homes and who provide almost all our cases of failure is a very t serious problem, which is greatly exercising the minds of the authorities Jin England at the present time, and .deserves the thoughtful attention of all > interested in the well-being of national ,i life. In this Dominion a feeble-minded Iwoipan may have six or eight feeblemiftekd illegitimate children quite incapable of taking care of themselves, and who in turn become the parents of a new generation of degenerate and feeble-minded offspring, each one a Snrden on the State. What are we to do with such girls when their six | months' probation is over? We know ■ tliey are unfit to go out into the world I unguarded, and yet we cannot keep them permanently in St. Mary's? Surely the State ought to provide a home for such cases. The net cost for maintenance would not be very great, as such girls could be usefully and profitably employed in laundry work. It is owing to the neglect of such people through many generations that England is burdened with a vast army of feeble-minded paupers who are incapable of rising out of pauperism, a. result which may be prevented in a young country like New Zealand if the problem be dealt with without delay."