The Westport Times AND CHARLESTON ARGUS. THURSDAY, MAY 7, 1868.

Westport Times, Volume II, Issue 239, 7 May 1868, Page 2

The Westport Times AND CHARLESTON ARGUS. THURSDAY, MAY 7, 1868.

AiroN'GST other matters that the Superintendent referred to in his address at the opening of the Provincial Council, the necessity of making provision for destitute children was specially pointed out. It seems that hitherto no definite plan has been adopted in reference to these helpless little waifs and strays of humanity, but they have just been farmed out as opportunity offered, and have been cared for only in the most desultory manner. We are rather surprised that up to the present time no fixed home has been found ; but as legislation is now directed to the subject, no doubt a proper asylum, where they may meet with the care and attention that their very defenceless condition demands will be provided without delay. But there are numbers of children living with their parents both on the goldfields and other places who require care quite as much, if not infinitely more, than those who are utterly deserted or orphaned. This may sound paradoxical, but it is true notwithstanding ; for there are instances constantly occurring where children of tender years need protection against, rather than from, their parents. A striking illustration of this was shown at the last sittings of the District Court. Two women, named Curtis and Flynn, were convicted of robbing a miner whilst he lay drunk and asleep in their place, a house of ill-fame at Charleston. They were arrested in December, and not tried till April, when they were sentenced to nine mouths' imprisonment. The latter of these had a little girl, about seven years' of age, and as there was no other place for her to be sent to on the mother being taken into custody, she was placed in gaol, was kept there for four months, and was sent away to Nelson with the women. There was no other course for the authorities to take ; the child could not bo suffered to starve about the streets and there was no shelter for her elsewhere. But in this case it was before the arrest thai she required protection against her mother, and it was then that it was the bounslen duty of the state to snatch her from the pollution and abomination of the brothel that was her home. We are told that "train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he shall not depart from it." What a training she has had, what a training she has to look forward to! Her mother is a woman of the worst character, and yet on her release the girl will be given up to her, to bo trained in all that is vicious, detestable, and immoral, to add another unit to the great total of lost and abandoned women, to live a wretched and degraded life, and either to die miserably in her youth, or live to an advanced age to brine others of her own sex to the shame of her own career. The picture is, for obvious reasons, but outlined, it would be as improper as it is unnecessary to fill it in. The child to whom special reference is made, is only one of hundreds who in their daily association with their parents learn nothing but shamelessness and depravity. A large number of women as well as the one referred to, who live a life of shame, have children who live with them and inhale, as it were, nothing but vice from their very cradle; can it be wondered at then, if in time they follow the example of their elders. Unfortunate children of this class are worse ten times over than orphans, and surely it is the duty of society to step in between them and their natural guardians, when the latter so foully disgrace their trust. If, in such cases, the children were taken away and placed in a proper institution, they would be at least have a chance in life of turning out respectable members of society, whilst at the same time their parents could be compelled to pay for their maintenance, or, in default, punished in such a way as the law might direct. Even if no revenue was derived from that source, and the whole cost fell on the State, it would be actually cheaper in the end to maintain and educate the child for a few years than to keep him

or her, on reaching maturity, in gaol for a longer period. This is the most utilitarian point of view ; on the score of humanity, much broader and better reasons could be urged. An Act empowering the authorities to separate children from parents under certain circumstances, however cruel in one light, would be kindness in another; and, moreover, parental love, if it still existed, might be made in fact a powerful instrument of reformation, if it was provided that on the mother leading a virtuous and industrious lito, her child would be restored to her. Something in this respect is necessary to detach a large number of recruits from the ranks of prostitution and crime. Whilst on the subject of abandoued and deserted children, the Council might with advantage consider such " abandoned children" as we have pointed out.