rom Mr. Herbert Samuel, then Under-Secretary of State in the
British Government, was gratifying, both to the council and to
me:--"Home Office, Whitehall, S.W., August 5, 1907. Dear Madam--I have
just read your little book on 'State Children in Australia;' and,
although a stranger to you, would venture to write to thank you for the
very valuable contribution you have made to the literature on the
subject. The present Government in England are already engaged in
promoting the more kindly and more effective methods of dealing with
destitute, neglected, or delinquent children, which are already so
widely adopted in South Australia. We are passing through Parliament
this year a Bill to enable a system of probation officers, both paid
and voluntary, to be established throughout the country, for dealing
not indeed with child offenders alone, but with adult offenders also,
who may be properly amenable to that treatment. And next year we
propose to introduce a comprehensive Children's Bill, which has been
entrusted to my charge, in which we hope to be able to include some of
the reforms you have at heart. In the preparation of that Bill the
experience of your colony and the account of it which you have
published will be of no small assistance. Yours sincerely, Herbert
Samuel."

Another department of our work for the protection of infant life, and
this we took over from the Destitute Board, where some unique
provisions had been initiated by Mr. James Smith. The Destitute Asylum
was the last refuge of the old and incapacitated poor, but it never
opened its doors to the able bodied. In the Union Workhouse in England
room is always found for friendless and penniless to come there for
confinement, who leave as soon as they are physically strong enough to
take their burden--their little baby--in their arms and face the world
again. In Adelaide these women were in 1868 divided into two classes,
one for girls who had made their first slip--girls weak, but very
rarely wicked--so as to separate them, from women who came for a second
or third time, who were cared for with their infants in the general
asylum. Mr. James Smith obtained in 1881 legislation to empower the
Destitute Board to make every woman sign an agreement to remain with
her infant, giving it the natural nourishment, for six months. This has
saved many infant lives, and has encouraged maternal affection. The
Destitute Board kept in its hands the issuing of licences, and
appo