CHAPTER XI

WARDS OF THE STATE.

In a little book which the State Children’s Council requested me to write as a memorial of the great work of Miss C. E. Clark on her retirement at the age of 80, I have given an account of the movement from the beginning down to 1907, which had its origin in South Australia under the leadership of Miss Clark.  When I was on my way cut from England, Miss Clark wrote a letter to The Register, suggesting that the destitute, neglected, or orphaned children should be removed from the Destitute Asylum and placed in natural homes with respectable people; but the great wave which came over England about that time for building industrial schools and reformatories affected South Australia also, and the idea was that, though the children should be removed from the older inmates, it should be to an institution.  Land was bought and plans were drawn up for an industrial school at Magill, five miles from Adelaide, when Miss Clark came to me and asked me to help her to take a different course.  She enlisted Mrs. (afterwards Lady) Colton and Mrs. (afterwards Lady) Davenport in the cause, and we arranged for a deputation to the Minister; Howard Clark, Neville Blyth, and Mr. C. B. Young joined us.  We offered to find country homes and provide lady visitors, but our request was simply scouted.  As we did not offer to bear any of the cost it would be absurd to give us any share in the administration.  Children would only be given homes for the sake of the money paid, and Oliver Twist’s was held up as the sort of apprenticeship likely to be secured for pauper children.  So we had to play the waiting game.  The school built to accommodate 230 children was on four floors, though there was 40 acres of good land.  It was so popular that, though only 130 went in at first, in two years it was so full that there was talk of adding a wing.  This was our opportunity, and the same men and women went on another deputation, and this time we prevailed, and were allowed to place out the overflow as an experiment; and not only the Boarding-out Committee, but the official heads of the Destitute Department, were surprised and delighted with the good homes we secured for 5/ a week, and with the improvement in health, in intelligence, and in happiness that resulted from putting children into natural homes.  What distinguishes work for children in Australia from what is done elsewhere is that it is national, and not philanthropic.  The State is in loco-parentis, and sees that what the child needs are a home and a mother—­that, if the home and the mother are good, the child shall he kept there; but that vigilant inspection is needed, voluntary or official—­better to have both.  Gradually the Magill School was emptied, and the children were scattered.  Up to the age of 13 the home was subsidized, but when by the education law the child was free from school attendance, and went to service, the supervision