The New Zealand Times (PUBLISHED DAILY). TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 26, 1882.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXIX, Issue 6690, 26 September 1882, Page 2

The New Zealand Times (PUBLISHED DAILY). TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 26, 1882.

The disclosures made at the Coroner’s inquest on the' body of the infant McCarthy show that the patrons of the institution known as the Home have need to examine somewhat narrowly the ways in which their philanthropic intentions are carried out. That institution is designed to be what its name apparently suggests —a Home for Friendless Women—that is, a place to which servant girls in want of service, but who have no relatives here, may be admitted until a suitable engagement is found for them. The object is a sensible and praiseworthy one, and calculated, under careful and judicious management, to conserve the moral and material welfare of the class whose interests are, professedly, sought to be promoted. It is just at this point, however, that we are visited with a feeling of surprise at the manner in which this conservation is sought to be obtained. It appears to have been the practice to receive into the Home not only girls who were in quest of service, but also those who had been obliged to leave service. Let it not be imagined that we have the smallest wish to utter or write one word of severe comment on those who, it may be, through the fault of others more than their own, have strayed from the path of virtue. They need the pity of humanity to a much larger extent than they commonly experience itand it would certainly be better for the moral tone of society generally if, at the proper time, and in a Christian spirit, they were taken charge of while yet the risk of further divergence from rectitude was not so great as its tendency is to be. But such cases evidently call for a method of treatment for themselves. The objects of conservation and of reclamation are so distinct that the attempt to combine them in one and the same institution betrays a lack of that wisdom which is required to deal successfully with human nature, as well as an ignorance of, the subtle influences by which that nature is governed. And this is precisely ho w the case appears to stand with the institution now so painfully brought under public notice. The persons in the direction thereof have tried to make it serve two by no means cognate, and, as i a matter of fact, irreeoncileable purposes. Who: these persons are we have no personal knowledge, nor are we aware what motives or reasonings may have induced them to adopt such a course. Possibly they may have been enforced to embark in it against their better judgment, from considerations of economy imposed upon them by the niggardliness of public support; But whatever causes may be assigned for the combination of what appears practically to be a Magdalene JRefuge with a home for the friendless, the outcome is the same, and is hone the less to be condemned as a glaring infraction of those prudential rules which,'in the superintendence of such institutions, can not be departed from, save fat the risk of serious consequences. It surely required no prophet to foretell what the result in such a case must be. The practical working of such an amalgamation must inevitably lead to the more commendable feature of the institution being in the public estimation overshadowed by the more doubtful, though in one sense more necessitous one, and, as a further consequence, to the neutralising of' its efficiency; under both its aspects. There is in all such matters a principle of unity; which absolutely requires that an institution, such as the one. in question, must be either one thing or another, for the simple reason that it; cannot t at the same time be both ; and it may safely be .concluded that the experience of this law, which those having the.direction of the Home may now be thought to have acquired with some pain, will have the effect of making them revert to its original design, and allowing the, reclaiming influence of their j philanthropy to carve out for ; themselves a channel in another arid separate direction. Yet even when this new departure is made it will be highly necessary that arrangements providing relief foi the objects of a : special compassion should be more effective than those incongruous ones which seem to have been in force! at the Home. There does hot appear to have been any proper system of obtaining reliable information respecting the applicants who were ready to adopt the children for whom it was desirable, if possible, to find a better training than the one they were born to. The surrender oi the child McCaetht to the woman 'Jansen. without any responsible voucher to the matron for the character of the recipient is perhaps a most’ glaring and unusual instance of the way in which the best intentions may be cruelly defeated. It must, however, be remembered that the tendency of a false system is ever towards an event which shocks all our sense of propriety, and this inhuman consignment of a newly-born infant from dark surrounding prospects to others not only leas promising, but even revolting, was the natural fruit of an unpardonable slackness which previously obtained. However, things, it is said, begin to mend when they are at their .worst; and it is tobe hoped that in this case the painful product of faulty regulations will lead to the establishing of a definite, line of procedure, such as will have the effect of making all persons connected with pur charitable institutions feel that there is a heavy responsibility resting upon them to be scrupulously anxious about the very manner in which,,their self-im-posed duty is performed. : !