ON BEHALF OF THE CHILD.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume XXIX, Issue 7817, 9 June 1909, Page 4

ON BEHALF OF THE CHILD.

A most important congress has been deliberating m Adelaide, a congress of workers among dependent children m all the States, 'ihe term, which is descriptive of the congress, is also indicative of its very noble object. Unlike many other forms of altruistic activity (says the Sydney Morning Herald) work which is designed for the salvation of the child of whatever condition makes a universal appeal to all the finer instincts of the race. When men were m a ruder state of existence the problem of the child was scarcely a problem at all. Then the conception of family was much wider than it is with us, and involved obligations by the family towards the individual within it, which, we are only trying to grope back towards through our immensely more complex civilisation of to-day. In Australia we have already gone further m this direction, though perhaps unconsciously, than most other countries m the world. With us the "State child"—surely the most pathetic figure m the whole of our present day civilisation has acquired a status which, however imperfectly, is an introduction to honourable citizenship. But we have still to go far before we can contemplate this work with complete satisfaction. The congress m Adelaide is an admission of this, and from its discussions we may hope to winnow many useful suggestions. In the meantime we may note the special appropriateness of such a congress choosing Adelaide as its meeting-place. South Australia has the distinction of being first of the British Dominions to break away from these appalling institutional methods of which Oliver Twist was the classic victim. "Through the reforming zeal of a lady, who was the niece of a great reformer m another field —Sir Rowland Hill—South Australia initiated a system of dealing with neglected and abandoned children, which m essentials has been copied since, not merely by the rest of Australia, but which is quoted with approval throughout the world, ■ We have got to the point of admitting that society must father and mother those who are otherwise orphaned. The first stage m the process .is the institution. But the institution, even at the best, is a poor formative agency for the young child which stands deprived of the humanising influences of the natural family life. Nature never intended .children to be reared within the grey walls of a barracks. Even the most fortunately born are dependent on a wholesome home life for their best development. Experience m all countries now condemns the institution as the sole agency of redemption, although it must remain m a modified form to meet ] needs which cannot be met m any other way. In the Australian States we have the boarding-out system, which is an ■ advance ; but it has its drawbacks. Chief among these drawbacks is the difficulty of always getting children boarded m homes which provide the right atmosphere or the right conditions. _ Those who are most ready to tako jn State children as boarders are only too often more solicitous of the small subsidy that accompanies the child than of, the welfare of the child itself. Moreover,' to subject a State child to slum conditions is to consign it to a slum maturity ; m turn to propagate a slum progeny, which m the main must be a charge on charity. The congress has been discussing the possibility of gaining for the otate child the practical sympathy of more comfortably placed people—a practical sympathy which will be expressed m offers of actual adoption. The idea, of course, js to get the right home life. Anclthis without doubt is the ideal solution of the problem. But it js beset with enormous difficulties. We immediately pomp up against the vague apprehensi'peness regarding an unknown heredity, even though we have the weight of experience' on the side of the view that, m the child's plastic period, environment is even mor«J potent than heredity. But, still, inure L , . . . .i :tt _..u.. ._ t^pvkrihp it is a practical am.i,m.iy. }pq§, the congress will be the means d? 'focussing £ body of valuable expert opinion upon a problem m whjch society, of whatever grade, is vitally interested. And after all it is but part of the much larger problem of the conservation of child-life m general. To see that every phijd has a- proper start m the race of life is now becpmmg jn-. creasingly the concern of every advanced community, and this involves not merely the caF® of those who are either actually or m effect without parents, but the intelligent supervision again of those whoso parentage is below par. For society is beginning to see that it must give attention to the child m general if it would protect itself from after-consequences of social embarrassment and racial inefficiency.