Pauperism in New South Wales. 113 



It appears, however, that beyond those above mentioned no 

 principles have been laid down for providing further accommoda- 

 tion : and that the time has arrived wben the existing hand to 

 mouth system must give place to a broader and more expansive 

 scheme. 



At present the Board labour on, doing what good they can 

 with the very insufficient means at their disposal. When the 

 existing asylums have arrived at the extreme limit of overcrowd- 

 ing, either some additional old building is sought for, or a wing 

 is attached somewhere. 



Thus it is that they are compelled to place the aged and infirm 

 women (many of whom are of great respectability) in a huge, 

 ugly, three-storied building, enclosed within walls fifteen feet 

 high, and having a lilliputian verandah at one end only, posses- 

 sing but a few square yards of ground ; and last, though not 

 least in the category of absurd evils, situated in the heart of the 

 city. Other paupers are dispatched to a distant port, so far re- 

 moved as to be beyond the inspection of the Managing Board, 

 and to impart a strong sense of transportation to the emigrants. 



The circumstances of the colony and action of the Government 

 have developed other institutions bearing more or less upon Poor 

 Law relief. 



Four local benevolent asylums exist, one at Penrith, Scone, 

 Singleton, Cooma, and Windsor. The number of inmates con- 

 tained in them on 3 1st December, 1867, was ninety (90), and the 

 cost to G-overnment for the same year was £912. 



They are not under the control of the Central Board. 



Other country hospitals receive a certain proportion of infirm 

 and destitute persons, but I am not aware that any definite laws 

 exist for their management in reference to the admission of this 

 class of inmates. 



A considerable number of them are in a woful state of repair 

 and poverty. 



The Destitute Children's Asylum had in December, 1867, after 

 but a few years' existence, the enormous number of 682 inmates, 

 and received from the Government no less a sum than £8689 

 during the same year. 



At the same date (December, 1867) four other schools 

 which are entiiely dependent upon Government support contained 

 an aggregate number of 637 children. 



The Sydney Infirmary may be said to contain 200 beds, and 

 admitted during the year 1867 1708 patients. The Directors are 

 bound by an agreement with the G-overnment to receive, as qual- 

 ified applicants for admission, all persons presenting an order 

 from the Colonial Secretary's Office ; and for such actually ad- 

 mitted the Government pay the institution one shilling and ten- 

 pence per diem, in addition to other considerable grants, which, 



