Year: 1877

VISIT we made lew days since TO the
Government Reform School for Boys, has sug-
gested to our mind the question; why should
there not be some similar institution provided
for girls?


That the boys school has done, and is still
doing a good work, is fact so generally
known and admitted as 10 require no discus
sion at our hands. Even in an economic sense,
leaving all higher considerations out of ac-
count, we believe the present Reform School
is worth to this Kingdom more than all it
COSTS But in a matter of this kind we have
no right to leave higher considerations out of
account. The difference to the community
between young man growing up idle, de
PRAYED and vicious, and one who is acquiring
habits of industry, sobriety and thrift is not to
be measured by the difference in their pro-
ductive capacity, or to be expressed by the
statement that one is producer and the other
consumer. This idea is, to certain extent
at least, recognized in the management of the
existing Reform School, whose object, as we
understand it, is not only to train up the in
mates of the institution in habits of useful
industry, but at the same time to impart to
them plain but substantial education, and so
far as possible, establish them in such sound
ideas and habits as shall tend to make them
in other respects useful and respectable mem
bers of society. But if such an institution,
conducted on such principles, is really needed
here for boys, which we think, hardly any
one qualified to judge VIII deny, can it be
fairly said that the same or something similar
is not equally needed for girls ?.


The lack of proper home influences and
sound parental discipline in large proportion
of native families is matter of common no.
toriety, and the disastrous results of such a
state of things are quite as apparent in the
female as in the male portion of the rising
generation. That there are considerable num-
bers OF girls who, for their own good and for
the good of society, ought to be put under
some stricter and better restraint than that
provided by their parents and friends, is just
as true and just as evident as that there are
boys similarly situated. The danger of way
ward and unframed girls growing up into de-
praved and vicious women is quite as great as
that of boys, under similar circumstances, de-
veloping into hoodlums and criminals; and
the danger to society from the former class is
in some respects even greater than from the
latter. There has been considerable said in
our papers lately about the "moral tone" of
society in this community The moral tone of
any society, with any claims to be considered
civilized, depends mainly on its women, and
we not only ought not, but we cannot, afford
to leave any, no matter how humble their
station, to grow up in ignorance or vice for
want of proper restraint and discipline To
meet the want we have referred to, there is
needed an institution to which suitable cases
can be committed in such way as to give as
full legal control over them as would be ex
ercised by parent or guardian, and with full
power to maintain that control without moles-
taton or interference from outside parties.
whether relatives or otherwise, until such
time as they should either be of full age or
should in the judgment of the proper authori-
ties be fitted to discharge their duties as men,
hers of society.


OF course we do not claim that the proposed
institution should be in all respects an exact
duplicate of the one now in existence. No
doubt the plan and organization of the latter
would require important notifications to fit il
to secure the best results, in the case Of
young persons of the other sex But that an
institution is needed, which should do for a
large class of our girls, substantially the same
work which the present Reform School aims
to do for a corresponding class of boys, ap-
pears to US sufficiently evident We hope the
next Legislature may be induced to take the
matter up in earnest, and make some suitable
provision for supplying the want we have in
dictated.