DESTITUTE AND NEGLECTED CHILDREN.

Wanganui Herald, Volume XXI, Issue 6363, 8 November 1887, Page 2

DESTITUTE AND NEGLECTED CHILDREN.

The case of the Fowkes' children brought into prominence the great want of a local home for such unfortunates. There are a large number of persons in the place who hold the opinion that if the Industrial School Estate trust ware properly administered that such an institntjon might be maintained from its funds, but it seems to us that it is useless to look to that quarter for anything of the kind, especially in the face of the fact that a splendid educational establishment has grown up thereon that is doing good work, to disturb which would be a great mistake. At the present moment the Charitable Aid Board's funds are called upon to pay the cost of a large number of children committed from the district to the Burnham and and Nelson Industrial Schools. If a local institution were established this money would be spent

in the place, and the children could

from time to time be drafted out and found employment among the settlers along the coast, and rescued from the

perils of the over-crowded Burnham establishment. We understand that the Catholics of Wanganui are willing to establish an institution similar to the Nelson one if they can get sufficient outside aid. They possess a building close to the convent which by a small expenditure could be made to accommodate from 25 to 35 children, whose welfare would be attended to by the nuns of the adjacent convent, some of whom have had special training for such duties. The building at present occupied by Mr Barnott was purchased by Father Kirk some little time ago with a view to the establishment of a home for destitute children. If Father Kirk succeeds in his efforts to provide so necessary an establishment, children could be committed to it, instead of to iho Nelson or Burnham Schools, and the cost of their maintenance locally expended. The Government have power, under the Industrial Schoolß Act of 1882, to approve of any private institution for the purposes of the Act, and allow children to bo committed thereto under certain specified restrictions. We trust that Father Kirk, who is deeply interested in the subject of rescuing neglected and destitute children, may succeed in establishing a home for them in Wanganui, as we feel sure such an institution would prove of great value and fill an urgent want.