Sending children to voluntary schools. Training ships. Boarding or deserted by their parents, or whose parents or surviving parent consent. * (2) They may send a child, if orphan or deserted by his or her parents or surviving parent (or one whose parents or surviving parent shall consent thereto),† till the age of 14, to any certified school, supported wholly or in part by voluntary subscriptions, provided that the cost does not exceed what would have been the cost in the workhouse, during the period at which the child is at the school. These schools are open to inspection by the Poor Law inspectors or by members of the Board of Guardians which has sent a child. This provision includes any institution for the instruction of the blind, deaf, dumb, lame, deformed, or idiotic, but not a certified reformatory school. Children cannot be sent to a school conducted on the principles of a religious denomination to which they do not belong. The consent of the parents is required in the case of illegitimate as well as legitimate children; for the former, the consent of the mother, if she has the care of the child, is sufficient. The Local Government Board has discretion in the case of deserted or orphan children as to the choice of the school to which, owing to religious grounds, the child should be sent, when no next-of-kin, step-parent, or god-parent can be found. § XXXIII.-POOR LAW PROVISION FOR CHILDREN: TRAINING SHIPS. (3) Training ships.-The Guardians of any Union, and the managers of any school or asylum district in the Metropolis may, with the consent of the Local Government Board, provide one or more ships to be used for training boys for the sea service. Such a ship is considered a school or asylum. The parent's consent (if surviving) has to be obtained, and a certificate from the Union medical officer that the boy is free from disease, and fit for training for the sea service. On admission to the ship he is placed in a probationary ward and medically examined. If eventually found unfit, or if there be proof of gross misconduct, he is discharged to the district or separate school or workhouse. The training-ship under the Metropolitan Asylums Board is the 'Exmouth.' In the half-year ended Lady-day 1887 the average daily number of boys in training there was 356. XXXIV. POOR LAW PROVISION FOR CHILDREN: BOARDING-OUT. (4) Another means at the disposal of the Guardians for protions under viding for orphan or deserted children, is boarding-out. out: condi which it is permitted. 14 & 15 Vict., c. 105, s. 6. It is † 25 & 26 Vict., c. 43, ss. 1, 2, 4, 6. As to amount payable, see Addenda, p. clxxvii. Ibid., s. 10. § 31 & 32 Vict., c. 122, s. 23. 32 & 33 Vict., c. 63, s. 11, and Local Government Board Order, August 24, 1876, see p. 562. Orders of the Local Government Board. Knight & Co., 1883. regulated in England by the Poor Law Order of November 25, 1870.* Before that order the Guardians could only board-out children within their Unions; by it they can board them beyond the limits of the Union-a necessary provision if the Unions in large towns were to adopt the system. The children are placed in cottagers' houses, under the care of foster-parents, and under the supervision of a Boarding-out Committee. The following are the principal requirements: A Boarding-out Committee is formed of two or more members: each member has to sign an undertaking truly and faithfully to observe all regulations prescribed in the Order, and is disqualified if he derive any pecuniary or personal profit from the boarding-out of any child. Children can be withdrawn by the Guardians at a week's notice. The Committee is responsible for finding and superintending the homes at which the children are boarded. The children who may be boarded-out must be between the ages of two and ten, and they must be either orphans, or being illegitimate, deserted by the mother; or being illegitimate, deserted by both parents, or deserted by one parent, the other parent being dead or under sentence of penal servitude, or suffering permanently from mental disease, or out of England.' A certificate of health has, prior to its being boarded-out, to be sent by the medical officer of the Union to the Boarding-out Committee. Except in the case of brothers and sisters, not more than two children can be boarded in the same house, and never more than four. They cannot be placed with foster-parents of different religious persuasions, and the foster-parents have to undertake 'to bring them up as their own children,' to provide proper food, &c., to see that the child goes to school and to church or chapel, and to report any sickness to the Guardians and the Boarding-out Committee. The sum payable is not more than 4s. a week exclusive of clothing, school pence, and medical fees. There must be a school within a mile and a half from the home, and the residence of a member of the Committee must be within five miles. The child must be visited and reported on at least once in every six weeks by a member of the Committee, the report being sent not less often than quarterly to the Guardians. If no report is received for four consecutive months, the Guardians may provide for the home being visited once in every six weeks by their own officer or withdraw the child. Some further details showing the care which, as all admit, has to be taken in boarding-out children are given by the Local Government Board in their circular. They may be suggestive to persons desirous of paying for the boarding-out of children from charitable funds. Children, except in special cases, are not to be placed with relations, or those in receipt of Poor Law relief, or where the * Glen: Poor Law Orders, p. 461 (1883). Pro and con. regarding boarding out. father has night work. Preference is to be given to the parents who have outdoor and not sedentary occupations. Decent accommodation and proper separation of the sexes must be provided. Children over seven are not allowed to sleep in the same room with married couples No child is to be boarded in a house where there is an adult lodger. If after two warnings to the foster-parents the schoolmaster's quarterly report is unfavourable, the child is to be withdrawn. Good ordinary clothing is to be provided at not more than 10s. a quarter. Children should not be sent to homes in places having a population of more than 15,000 persons. The boarding-out system is strongly advocated and as strongly opposed. Its advocates urge that it gives the child a quasi-natural position as the member of a family, and that it merges the child in the population; as he grows up he learns a trade and obtains work as others do in that rank of life. If the means of instruction are less complete than in a district school, there is more of education in its larger sense. A knowledge of life and a friendship with others is obtained, which is not to be had in a district school. And, especially with girls, is it necessary to substitute for the institutional life of a large school the family life. This gives a knowledge of those household matters, in which girls from the schools show a marked incapacity, and influences the character most beneficially. The poor, also, it is said, like sending their children to institutions, but find no such satisfaction in letting their children live among cottagers in the country. There is thus less temptation to pauperism. Lastly, the system has been very successful in Scotland. The opponents point to the favourable results of the district schools, and the greater educational resources of a large institution. Strict supervision is difficult. The efficiency of the Local Boarding-out Committee is very variable, and the system is injurious to district schools by withdrawing the orphan children, the most permanent element. The payment of 4s. a week, with the cost of school fees, clothing, and medical attendance, places the child of a pauper in a better position than the child of the labourer, the foster-parent, who seldom has 4s. to spend on one child. This will lead him to compare the lot of his own children unfavourably with that of the children, and often the illegitimate children, of improvident pauper parents. So he will be taught a lesson in unthrift. It will encourage illegitimacy also, it is said; it is more attractive to the poor than institutions, and the advantages of family life will be purchased at too great a sacrifice in other ways. * The practice of boarding-out children on payment from charitable sources is not unfrequent in dealing with the cases of widows *Since the publication of the last edition of the Register, 'Children of the State,' by Miss F. Davenport-Hill and Miss Fanny Fowke, has been published. In it the reader will find the whole question of boarding-out most fully dealt with. who have to go into service, &c. A list of Boarding-out Committees will be found in the Register. The number of children boarded-out under the Order of September, 1877, was, on January 1, 1888, 2,324. There is now an inspector (Miss Mason) for the purpose of visiting children boarded-out in different parts of the country. An instance of assisting a widow by a combination of boardingout and admission to homes is given in the following case : A poor widow was very ill, and had been ordered by the doctor to go into the Illustrative hospital, where a lengthened course of treatment would be necessary. She did case. not know how to manage it, as her eldest boy was only fifteen, and was out all day, and the other children were too young to be left alone. The clergyman in whose parish the woman lived sent the case on to the Committee, not having funds to deal with it adequately. She was very much respected by all who knew her, and her life depended on going into the hospital at once. Great efforts were made by the Committee, and kind assistance was given by a clergyman. Two children were placed in orphanages. The eldest girl was boarded-out, and a place subsequently found for her. The baby was boarded-out with a woman who bestowed on it all the care and attention that could be desired, under the supervision of the clergyman's wife. The mother was most grateful for what had been done. She has since come out of the hospital fairly restored in health, and is prospering. Though still not strong, she has a light place, and is contributing 2s. 6d. a week towards the support of her baby. XXXV.-POOR LAW PROVISION FOR CHILDREN: APPRENTICESHIP.* of apprenticeship by the Guard ians. (5) Apprenticeship or sending out to service is another resource Condition open to Guardians. The Guardians can apprentice any poor child not under nine years old, who can (unless deaf and dumb) read and write his own name.† It is not necessary that either child or parent should be actually in receipt of relief as paupers at the time. Apprenticeship is to be considered a species of 'relief,' and should not, therefore, except with the sanction of the Local Government Board, be provided, for instance, in the case of the child of an ablebodied man, unless the latter be in receipt of relief in the house or otherwise according to the Outdoor Relief Prohibitory or Regulation Orders. If the child is in the workhouse and under the age of 14, the medical officer has to give a certificate of his bodily fitness for the proposed trade, and the master of the workhouse has to vouch for his general capacity. If the child is not in the workhouse, the relieving officer has to inquire and report on the circumstances of the case, the condition of the child and of his parents, if any, the residence and trade of the proposed master and other points; and subsequently, if the child is less than 14 years of age, a medical certificate of fitness is obtained. The person to whom a child is bound must be a 'housekeeper or assessed to the poor-rate in his own name '-not a journeyman * It may be well to mention that, under the Stamp Act of 1870, public charities are exempted from the payment of indenture fees in putting out apprentices. † Consolidated Order, art. 52. Cf. Glen Poor Law Orders, p. 77. Apprenticeship to sea service by the Guardians. Supervision of apprentices and servants placed out by the Guardians. or 'person not carrying on trade or business on his own account,' a person under 21 years of age, or a married woman. The place of business at which the apprentice has to live and work must not be more than 30 miles from the place where the child is residing at the time of apprenticeship. If the apprentice is above the age of 16, and not by reason of deformity, or other such cause unfit for work, no premium is given except clothing. In other cases the premium is given part in money, part in clothing; and the former is payable, one moiety at the binding, the remainder after the first year of apprenticeship. The term of apprenticeship is not more than eight years. The consent of the person to be bound apprentice, if not more than 14 years of age, has to be obtained, and if he be not more than 16 years of age, the consent of the parent or guardian is, with some exceptions, required. The apprenticeship is by indenture. The master has to teach the trade or business agreed upon, and has to provide proper food, lodging and clothing, and in case of sickness or accident, adequate medical or surgical assistance;' he must arrange for suitable religious instruction being given, according to the creed of the apprentice; after 17, the apprentice may be paid such wages as the Guardians may stipulate. If the terms of the indenture are transgressed by the master, or he becomes bankrupt, the indenture is cancelled. (6) Apprenticeship to sea service.-The Guardians may apprenThe tice boys by indenture to masters and owners of ships.* indenture must be attested by two justices, who shall ascertain that the boy has consented, that he is sufficiently healthy, strong, and that he is bound to a proper person. Guardians may also pay the expenses of boys who, or whose parents, are in receipt of Poor Law relief, in going to the nearest port to be examined, and they may pay for their outfit.† There are a large number of training and coastguard ships at which boys are sent by the Guardians for entry in H.M. naval service. The Guardians are bound to keep a register of those under the age of 16 whom they have placed as apprentices or in service, and to cause them while under that age and in the same service to be visited twice a year by a relieving officer, who reports to the Guardians on their food and treatment.‡ Furthermore, the Guardians, or the managers of a district school, may employ a visitor to report upon the condition, treatment, and conduct of any child under the age of 16 who has gone into service from the workhouse or the school.§ Since 1879 the Guardians have, with the consent of the Local Merchant Shipping Act, August 10, 1854 (17 & 18 Vict., c. 104), s. 141, &c. † 39 & 40 Vict., c. 61, s. 28. 14 & 15 Vict., c. 11, ss. 3, 4, and 5. § 39 & 40 Vict., c. 61, s. 33. |