Discussions

It’s Aims under the Act:  
 
“Any boy under 14, or a girl under 16, may be apprehended who is within any of the following descriptions.  
 
(1) Who is found begging in any street, house or place of public resort.  
(2) Who is found wandering about at a late hour, or sleeping at night in barns, outhouses or in the open air.  
(3) Who is found associating or dwelling with a thief, drunkard, or vagrant, or who by reason of neglect in drunkenness or other vices of the parents, or guardians is suffered to grow up without salutary parental control, and education, or in circumstances exposing such child to idle or dissolute life.  
(4) Who is found in any disorderly house, or in company of reputed criminal, immoral, or disorderly people.  
(5) Who is a destitute orphan, or who has been deserted by his lawful parents or guardians.  
(6) Who is found guilty of petty crimes, and who is likely to develop criminal tendencies if not removed from his or her surroundings.”  
 
If such charges are substantiated before a magistrate, the child may be handed over to the Brandon Children’s Aid Society, and later may be placed in a foster home where careful home treatment may be secured.  
 
Such Foster Homes are under government supervision and must enter into contract to train the child in a way that will lead to good citizenship.  
 
It is possible also, in extreme cases to send that child to a Reformatory or Refuge even outside the province.  
 
If such a child absconds from the Foster Home, anyone harbouring such absconder is liable to heavy penalties.  
 
It is important that Brandon and surrounding district should know of the existence of such a society. It is capable of being a great power in the community, and no one interested in the children, or in national welfare which depends so much on the child, should stand aloof from it.  
 
There is an elected Directorate, and an additional Advisory Board, but any one interested in child saving may become a member by paying the small annual fee of $1.00.  
 
The public can aid this movement in any of the following ways:  
(1) By joining, and becoming active participants in its work.  
(2) By informing the officers of cases of ill-treatment, neglect, or vice.  
(3) By telling of homes, or volunteering homes which would assume responsibility for training such children.  
(4) By giving liberal subscriptions in aid of the work.  
 
No one knows the blessing such an organization may be. If endorsed by the earnest sympathy of our people, and if only one child be saved the reward is beyond price.  
E. A. HENRY, President  
W. N. FINLAY, Secretary  
Mrs. J. H. MURRAY, Treasurer  
 
Source: Daly House Museum