STATE CHILDREN.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXIX, Issue 14611, 19 February 1908, Page 6

STATE CHILDREN.

The attendance at the Alexandra Hall last evening showed that at length the public are beginning to take an interest in the subject of tho children of the State. It is rarely more than a very small section of tho community concerns itself with tho solution, of social problems. Occasionally eome sensational incident gives point to a longneglected demand for reform, but for the most part progress in such matters is painfully slow. Last night's meeting showed that the question of the treatment of the orphans and tho neglected children had attracted the attention of quite a considerable circle outsido the well-known group of men and women who have been labouring in this field for years past, and wo may hope that tho conscience of the community is now being seriously stirred. It may be said that the speakers were merely going over old ground. That is true. Unfortunately, the same reforms have had to he urged in tho same way for twenty years, because the community ns a whole would not realise its responsibility, and when tho community is indifferent Parliament cannot bo expected to move. Mr Lauronson put the case iu a nutshell. Tho State considers it wise to pay £74 a year to teach the deaf mute how to speak; it grudges a third of that sum to make a good citizen of a child who starts out in life without mental or physical defect. Tho great majority of tho children who are “boarded out” under tho Charitable Aid Board’s system or who are to be found in State institutions are the victims of conditions for which tho community itself is responsible. They aro mostly orphans, or tho children of criminal, vicious or neglectful parents. There is scarcely ono that could not- ho saved for a life of usefulness. Tho children who are turned out of the industrial schools and reformatories commence life in the world under a manifest handicap. Tho remarkably high percentage of “successes,” of young men and women, that is, who settle down to an earnest, honest life., is proof that tho material is good. Surely the State should do its whole duty by these boys and girls, and train them under conditions that will give them a better chance of larger success in tho ultimate competition with their fellows. There is scarcely ono of them that enjoys the inestimable benefit of a true homo influence. The speakers last night pointed tho way to the reform. The existing system is had, and. the sooner it makes way for a more enlightened system the better it will bo for the children themselves and for the community.