Education and Agriculture 



and the public purse would be saved the un- 

 necessary expense of buying costly sites within 

 city limits, as has been the general practice in 

 the past. 



From the point of view of economy, the right 

 way to educate pauper children is, as far as 

 possible, in the ordinary elementary school 

 under the supervision of the local education 

 committee, and the best way of housing them is 

 to board them out with respectable families. 

 In England some 6,000 of the total 235,000 

 are so dealt with and the evidence is all in 

 favour of it. As a contrast in Austria, there 

 are some 30,000 children boarded out. And 

 it is noteworthy that existing legislation in 

 Austria relating to children was brought in by 

 a Conservative Government, and not by 

 Socialists or Radicals. The Government was 

 guided by two main principles — first, that 

 children are the country's chief asset : second, 

 that every child has a right to develop into 

 the best possible type of citizen, with the 

 corollary that therefore the State has the power 

 to step in and remove the child from condi- 

 tions unfavourable to its development. Surely 

 reasonable people cannot take exception to the 

 soundness of these axioms ? The results in 

 Austria are most satisfactory; there the authori- 

 ties seem able to make parents contribute more 

 than is the case here, so that the net annual 



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