72 Environment and Efficiency 



the two which should be least touched by this criticism are 

 those whose children are boarded-out in working-class homes, 

 namely, the Y. Emigration Homes and the Glasgow Parish 

 Council. 



Should the home they provide be a satisfactory one, it 

 should be able to supply the child with just that sense of 

 stability and closeness of tie that Miss Williams thinks so 

 desirable. 



The Commissioners signing the Poor Law Majority Report 

 say: 



" One grave defect which we have noticed is the absence 

 of systematic record as to what becomes of the children after 

 passing from the care of the Guardians, generally at the early 

 age of fourteen. 



" In a few cases such records are kept, but in the great 

 majority of Unions the Guardians keep no record of their 

 children, and it is a matter of chance whether some individual 

 guardian or official keeps in touch with a child sufficiently to 

 know what becomes of it after the lapse of a year or two. In 

 many of the schools we are glad to know that the super- 

 intendents have made themselves so trusted that the children 

 will turn to them in times of difficulty, but we think that 

 something more than this is needed. It is not sufficient to 

 send a child of fourteen to a situation which may prove un- 

 suitable and leave it there to look after itself." 1 



Let me contrast this with the descriptions already given of 

 the efforts made by both the superintendents of the Girls' 

 Industrial School and of the Boys' Industrial School (No. 2) 

 to keep in touch with the children who have passed through 

 their hands, not only for one, two, or three }^ears, but for the 

 rest of their lives if possible. And if we look back at the 

 girls' records and see how repeatedly we come across the phrase, 

 " Was present at the Re-union " ; " Brought her baby to the 

 Re-union " ; " Spent her holidays at the School three years 



1 Majority Report, Part iv. ch. 8. 



