DR. BABNARDO'S HOME.

Taranaki Herald, Volume XXXIX, Issue 8758, 21 April 1890, Page 3

DR. BABNARDO'S HOME.

We have been requested by Mrs T. Kelly to publish the following letter sent by Dr. Barnardo to the Taranaki subscribers to the Neglected Children's Home :—: —

London, 20th February, 1890. Dkar Friends,— Vy first duty to you one and all is that of apology. It grieves me more than I can Bay to think that after your inebtiinably generous kindness, and Christian sympathy, your most welcome and encouraging gift should have been treated with such an pppcarance of neglect, and lack of aporeciation. The very interest, however, of your communication has led I am afraid to unusual delay. I received your donation on the very busiest dfiy of all my year, when myself nnd all my helpers were almost at our wit? ends home to overtake the work which was steadily accumulating. Immediately afterwards our institutions were attacked bythfl opirlemic of Russian influenza which . go prevalent throughoi, ; London, and instantly our \v}iplo worlj wub

nearly three-fourths of my staff of helpers were laid aside, and it became absolutely impossible to discharge to the full the day's duties. My own household was invaded by the disorder, and every member including myself, was prostrated. My third son, a bright aud promising boy of 12, became a victim of diphtheria, following the attack of influenza, and at last he was taken from us after a very painful illness. Burdened thus with personal sorrow, und with institutional cases (and let it be remembered that my rosuuud lloclc numbered then over 3,300 children, the largest total ever attained iv this or any other institution) I was forced to rely very largely upon the indulgence of my helpers far and near. And only within the p.;st fortnight or so have 1 been able to reduce the large arrears which then accumulated. I very gladly now enclose you my receipt for your encouraging and far travelled gift, and I also enclose a photograph and brief history of a poor boy admitted to these institutions lasl December to whose maintenance I have in your name devoted your united gift. 1 faincerely trust that bis future will be brighter than his past, and that iv the years to come he will do credit to you his distant benefactors as well as to the Homes which were the means of saving him from such untoward surroundings. In his name as well as in my own I again send you one and all a grateful " thank you." It may interest you to know that as I write no fewer than 3,350 children ranging in age from babies to youths aud girls on tho verge of adult ago are under the shelter of our institutions, constituting the largcstfamilyinthe world caved i'or by any one man. 6or 8 additional are alsc being admitted every day within our doors. May liecouimcnd all these, rescued ones to your contiuued sympathy and regard ? j They come to me ragged, hungry, friendless, helpless, tempted, and our Homes i ofteu stand between them and absoHite destruction. With renewed and grateful thanks to the large circle of friendly helpers in whose name Mrs Kelly has written, and with best Christian regards and j wishes. — Believe me to be, dear friends, ] faithfully yours iv Christ's servico among the little ones, j Tiios. J. Baknaudo. Jarvis llintox ; admitted December 7, 1889 ; aged 8. One of two brothers admitted together. Father disappeared aud ennot be traced. Mother a tramp. In going through London with her boys, she was sheltered fora night at one of our free lodging houses. She has had no iixed residence for the past 5 years. In the summer she does field work wherever she can obtain it, and in the winter subsists by begging, spending her nights in casual wards, or in lodging houses. The scanty lnotherliness of this mother is attested by the fact that she has allowed one of her children — a girl — to wander away from her, and has no knowledge whatever as to what fate has befallen her. Tho boy, with his brother, is now boarded out in a happy cottage home in Somersetshire, and is getting on well.— Boy in "Dr Barnardo's Home," rescued by Taranaki subscriptions.