South Canterbury Times, FRIDAY, JULY 21, 1893.

South Canterbury Times, Issue 7267, 21 July 1893, Page 2

South Canterbury Times, FRIDAY, JULY 21, 1893.

The members of the Charitable Aid Board have an important question to study in the interval between now and next meeting, in the proposal of their committee to establish a farm colony for their protegee, orphan and destitute children and destitute aged persons. It may be that the proposal is in part practicable and valuable, and part the reverse, and it should not be considered only as a whole. There is not only no necessary relation between the proper treatment of the children and the treatment of the old moo, but there seems to be essential differences between them. The one aim in the case of the old folks is to make their declining years as comfortable ns is consistent with due regard to the interests of the taxpayers. In the case of the children there are two ends to be attained, they have to bo properly nourished, and also as well trained as possible under the circumstances. They require, besides the food and lodging needed by the aged, schooling and training in some useful industry. The idea of concentration may be a wrong one. The association of a miscellaneous lot of old men is not exactly what one would choose for one’s own children, and as the Board stands in the place of a parent to its juvenile charges, that is one point of view that should .not be forgotten. Whether the boarding system is better than the orphanage system of dealing with the children when young depends very much upon the character of the foster-parents in the one case, and of the master and matron in the other. There is a good deal of chance in either case. There seems to be a defect in the present boarding-out system that the board surrenders too completely its authority over the children, by giving them up for the full term of their control over them. It would seem better to resume charge of them for a year or two, at the close of the period of reponaibility, and during thbse years see that they are placed in a position to acquire the Industrial, training and industrious habits which Mr Talbot properly insisted upon as so important. It should be a rule strictly enforced that children go to school until they have acquired the average attainments of the children of industrial classes on leaving school, and thereafter the board, or its delegates the local committees where they exist, should have a say in the industrial education uf the children, —the choice of employer, and of employ-1 meat, and so forth. The idea of obtaining J

any remunerative work out of the destitute aged is rather a chimerical one. At all events the results could not justify any large capital outlay on means for extracting it. A stronger argument than the financial one would be that the old folks would be happier if they had some little jobs to potter over; but as a rule very little satisfies them,and there is less if any sense of compulsion about it. It would not be an extravagant generosity to declare that they may as well be allowed to be idle if they prefer it, and if they do not, some* thing could be found for them to potter at anywhere, in town or out of it. But one thing stands out plainly in our view of the whole question, and that is that the problem of dealing with the children and that of dealing with the old people, are two and not one, and should be treated quite separately, and with a determination to keep the two classes of people separate