40 

 SILK CULTURE. 



Read by 3. J. Stutzer, Esq., at a Meeting held May 25, 1864. 



I have the honour to submit to the attention of the society a few 

 brief observations as to the practicability of utilizing the labour of the 

 inmates of our benevolent and reformatory institutions in conjunc- 

 tion with the introduction of new industries. The object of these 

 remarks is two-fold — first, to attempt making the institutions to 

 some extent self-supporting, and diminishing their heavy cost to the 

 community ; and secondly, to secure a certain amount of cheap 

 labour, which will render practicable the introduction of those new 

 means of developing the productive resources of Australia, which in 

 many cases are left untried solely owing to the present excessive rate 

 of wages. Though the present average income of each Australian is 

 probably even now greater than anywhere else in the world, it is 

 considerably less than it has been, and may be expected to suffer a 

 further diminution. Whenever a serious strain upon the national 

 resources shall be felt a hurried economy will have to be enforced. 

 It will be found that hundreds of thousands of pounds will have 

 been wasted in the course of years in the maintenance of prisoners, 

 lunatics, paupers, and destitute children, which might have been 

 saved had the objects of this expenditure been steadily employed in 

 working out their own support. On the Continent, especially under 

 the French and Dutch G overnments, the benevolent and reformatory 

 establishments are made, by judicious management, to be to a great 

 extent self-supporting. That at Mettray, a reformatory school for 

 boys, is especially remarkable. At the Breda establishment the cost 

 of each inmate is, or was, about £6 per head. In the north of 

 Holland, on the loose sandy heaths of Overyssel and Groningen, 

 pauper agricultural colonies have been established for half a century, 

 and have succeeded in bringing into cultivation large tracts of land 

 originally worthless, at the same time that the average cost per man 

 has been under 3s. a week. When we come to Australia we find 

 their cost to be in some places double, in others treble, that of 

 similar establishments in Europe. At the Imperial convict establish- 

 ment of Port Arthur, were the labour of 500 men under vigorous 

 discipline has been always available, its money value is under 

 £3,000 a year. At the Queen's Orphan Asylum, at Hobart Town, 

 which maintains an average of 460 children, the cost was for a long 

 time above £11,000, or at the rate of £26 per head. At the 

 Eandwick Asylum, near Sydney, which is much better managed, the 

 cost is still £20 per head. I will not take up your time by multiply- 

 ing examples, but at once proceed to what I consider as a remedy, 

 confining myself to schools. The great obstacle to the industrial 

 employment of children is the excessive time which is given to book 

 learning. A boy or girl of say 10 years old averages six hours in 

 school, and will probably, if he or she want to get up their lessons, 

 have a couple more hours in the evening. This is about as much 



