More departments were gradually added to our sphere of action.  The separate trial of juvenile delinquents was strongly advocated by the council.  Miss Clark and Mr. C. H. Goode were particularly keen on the introduction of Children’s Courts.  In this reform South Australia led the world, and in the new Act of 1896, after six years of tentative work, it became compulsory to try offenders under 18 at the Children’s Court in the city and suburbs, and in the Magistrate’s room in the country.  The methods of organization and control vary in the different States of the Commonwealth, but on one point the six are all agreed—­ that dependent and delinquent children are a national asset and a national responsibility, and any forward step anywhere has every chance of being copied.  The result of Children’s Courts and probation has been that, while the population of the State has greatly increased, the committals to the Gaol and for penal servitude have steadily decreased, and the Boys’ Reformatory has been reduced to one-third of the number in earlier days.  There are, of course, many factors in all directions of social betterment, but the substitution of homes for institutions, and of probation carefully watched for summary punishment, are, in my opinion, the largest factors in, this State.  The affection between children and their foster parents is often lifelong; and we see thousands who were taken from bad parents and evil environments taking their place in the industrial world, and filling it well.  The movement in South Australia initiated by Miss Clark spread from State to State, and the happy thought of the President and Secretary of the Council that I should write an account of “Boarding-out and its Developments” as a memorial of her great work bore fruit in the legislation of the United Kingdom itself.  A letter I received from Mr. Herbert Samuel, then Under-Secretary of State in the British Government, was gratifying, both to the council and to me:—­“Home Office, Whitehall, S.W., August 5, 1907.  Dear Madam—­I have just read your little book on ‘State Children in Australia;’ and, although a stranger to you, would venture to write to thank you for the very valuable contribution you have made to the literature on the subject.  The present Government in England are already engaged in promoting the more kindly and more effective methods of dealing with destitute, neglected, or delinquent children, which are already so widely adopted in South Australia.  We are passing through Parliament this year a Bill to enable a system of probation officers, both paid and voluntary, to be established throughout the country, for dealing not indeed with child offenders alone, but with adult offenders also, who may be properly amenable to that treatment.  And next year we propose to introduce a comprehensive Children’s Bill, which has been entrusted to my charge, in which we hope to be able to include some of the reforms you have at heart.  In the preparation of that Bill the experience of your colony and the account of it which you have published will be of no small assistance.  Yours sincerely, Herbert Samuel.”