40 
SILK CULTURE. 
Read by J. J. Stvtzib, 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 havo 
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 Governments, 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 £G 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 inlo 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 
Randwick 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 
