THE CHILDREN'S AID SOCIETY.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CVI, Issue 12569, 2 August 1901, Page 4

THE CHILDREN'S AID SOCIETY.

The Canterbury Children's Aid Society is one of the few philanthropic bodies that absolutely deserve all the kind things that are said of them at their annual meetings. And it receives far less support from the public, than the nature and extent of its operations would justify. The annual report is a remarkable.record of achievement, but the Society can tcuch little more than the fringe of the field in which it labours. The free kindergarten which uh« Society maintains in St Albans is> an institution' whose usefulness is limited only by the amount of its funds. It serves the double' purpose of a " creche" an<i a school, and so long as the municipality refuses to do its obvious duty in this respect, the public should assist the Society with money donations to reopen the school which it formerly maintained on the South Belt, and to establish others in the- poorer and more densely populated districts of the city and suburbs. St Albans and Linwood, we believe,, owe their recreation grounds mainly to agitations set' on foot by.the Society, and the city bylaw dealing with juvenile street vendors, which came into operation yesterday, was the result of its representations to the City Council. But its work is not all so public. Its officers move in dark alleys and crowded streets, seeking out the children of vicious, brutal, or t ■ ' drunken parents, children who are imbeciles and children whose* homes are morally ,or materially unhealthy. .'.'-Many' of the cases in which the police have taken action have been due directly to its investigations,. and we are afraid there* is ■good ground for its complaint that the police are sometimes difficult to move. But it would never do t> give members of a private society the powers advocated by Mr : O'Bryen Hoare at the annual meeting last, evening. The administration of the Industrial Schools Act must be left in the hands of the police, and the public should support the Society in insisting that the Department should be more .energetic in sav-, ing children frcm immorality and degradation. The Society's report emphasises the for more wholesome dwellings for the poor, and a superficial inspection is often sufficient to convince am observer that many of the houses used by workers and ethers in the city and, suburbs are absolutely unfit for human habitation. This is another direction in which the municipality should use its money and its powers. There is much more that might toe said concerning the operations and aims of this eminently practical Society, and the public ought to show their appreciation and gratitude by giving it the powers to increase its usefulness tenfold. They may be sure that the money will be wisely spent.