ESTABLISHED 1875. The Manawatu Daily Times. The Oldest Manawatu Journal. Published Every Morning. FRIDAY, SEPT. 22, 1905. A GRAND CHARACTER.

Manawatu Times, Volume XXVIII, Issue 495, 22 September 1905, Page 2

ESTABLISHED 1875. The Manawatu Daily Times. The Oldest Manawatu Journal. Published Every Morning. FRIDAY, SEPT. 22, 1905. A GRAND CHARACTER.

Dk Thomas John Babnardo, whose death ia announced in to-day's issue, was known as " the father of nobody's children," and his" Bver-open doors " are familiar as household words to the British-speaking public. It is forty years since the work began which has made him famous, and it was entered upon without premeditation and without the slightest suspicion of tho magnitude it would attain. In 1866 the doctor was a medical student, under deep religious convictions, and with a desire to devote his life to Chinese missions. He was of mixed nationality. His father, of Spanish descent, was a native of Germany ; his mother, an Englishwoman, was born in Ireland,

whore he also was born, and spent his childhood and youth. It was while a student at the London Hospital that his call came, There was an outbreak of cholera and a " stampede," including so many of the medical profession that there was urgent need for volunteers Dr Barnardo throw himself with untiring energy into East-end work, and thereby gained that insight into the life and condition of tho London poor which proved so invaluable to him in after years. "In the heart of squalid Stepney " ho found need for mission work as urgent as it could be in the Celestial Empire, and with EOtno other students he established, in a disused donkey stable, a ragged school, to which he devoted all his Sunday?, and two week nights were reservod for the work. To this school came one night, in search of warmth, a " disroputablo little imp " named Jim Evans, in ragp, a heathen, who had heard of Jesus, and supposed him (0 be " the Pope of Rome," who had no parents or friands, and "lived nowhere." Dr Barnardo doubted tbe latter part of the story, but tho boy assured him there were "heaps of boys" in like condition, and volunteered to point them out. His dbclosure3 of tho state of the homeless and friendless waifi of the London slums, drifting into vice and crime, came as a rvelafcion to the young student, and he became, possessed with the idea of bringing to them practical help. And thus came about the establishment of the first of the " homos " with which his name is associated—wherein were received twenty-five of the most dcplorab'e cases.

In tho forty years that have since elapsed, a marvellous work hm been done, it wad fchu^ briefly summarised a few months ago:—"Nearly sixty thousand children have been rescued from cruelty, crime, and pauperism. These all havo been carefully educated, taught industrial pursuits where possible, and then placed out in life under wise and continuous supervision; while a widely ramifying organisation has been perfected all over tbe Kingdom by which swift relief is freely brought to every really destituta child that we can discover. Sixteen thousand eight hundred emigrants hive been successfully placed in our colonies, where they have (excepting some 2 per cent cf failures) attained honest independence. To day, the great family under the care of the Homes numbers a little over 8500, to which some thirteen souls are freshly added every twenty-four hours."

This takes no account of tho moral work, which no statistics can represent; of tho vast boon to the State in turning so much of the wa3te material of humanity to profit, or of the stimulus it has given to other workers in similar fields. Naturally the enterprise was soon a tax upon the doctor's personal powers, and whon the strain was greatest he was subjected to a campaign of bitter calumny, which, however, brought forth good. For the committee of men of position and integrity, appointed to scrutinise the work, not only vindicated the founder, but induced him to hand over the details of its administration to managers, who conducted the concern with the same precision and accuracy as is required of a joint-3tock company, leaving his own hands free for greater usefulness. Of late years the institution has been known ag "The National Waifs' Association," but the doctor has always been tho guiding spirit, and through his magazine, originally entitled " Night and Day," he has made its work known throughout the world. Lately there have been sinister rumours of a break-down of his health. Ho was compelled early this year to drop all work and take a trip to the Continent, and some improvement was reported. Only last July ho pathetically wrote: —"Every attempt at sustained effort during the last twelve months has been followed by days or evon week 3of prostration and illness, so that we are fain to leave to others, younger and more alert, the task of rekindling the interest of our old friends or of gaining new friends to the Children's Cause. Although only sixty years of age, we have, in the exigencies of our work, ' burned the candle at both ends' and we are, in consequence, now being forcibly lemindtd of our limitations. Under such circumstances we venture to ask all those to whom the cause of Christ among the children is dear, to consider if they cannot' lift up the hands which hang down and the feeble knees' ?" And now, not altogether unexpectedly, the end has come. But the work continues, and, it is to be hoped, will receive even greater support. Dr. Barnardo has left a name which will stand high in the roll of the benefactors of mankind.