s sent to Magill had committed
the crimes for which they were first convicted while truanting.
Moreover, an improvement was noticed immediately on the amendment of
the compulsory attendance clauses in the Education Act. Truancy--the
wicket gate of the road to ruin in youth--should be barred as
effectively as possible, and the best way to bar it is to make every
day a compulsory school day, unless the excuse for absence be
abundantly sufficient. Another aspect of the neglected children
problem, which Federal action alone will solve, is in dealing with
cases of neglect by desertion. At present each State is put to great
trouble and expense through defaulting parents. Federal legislation
would render it possible to have an order for payment made in one State
collected and remitted by an officer in another State. By this means
thousands of pounds a year could be saved to the various States, and
many a child prevented from becoming a burden to the people at large.
These are some of the problems awaiting solution and the women of South
Australia will do well to make the salvation of these neglected waifs a
personal care and responsibility. Perhaps no other work of the State
Children's Council has more practically shown their appreciation of the
capabilities of the children under their care than the establishment of
the State children's advancement fund. This is to enable State children
who show any aptitude, to pursue their education through the
continuation schools to the University. To private subscriptions for
this purpose the Government have added a subsidy of 50 pounds, and
already some children are availing themselves of this splendid
opportunity to rise in the world. The longer I live the prouder I feel
that I have been enabled to assist in this splendid work for the
benefit of humanity.

The years as they passed left me with wider interests in, deeper
sympathies with, and greater knowledge of the world and its people.
Each year found "one thing worth beginning, one thread of life worth
spinning." The pleasure I derived from the more extended intellectual
activity of my later years was due largely to my association with a
band of cultured and earnest women interested in social, political, and
other public questions--women who, seeing "the tides of things,"
desired so to direct them that each wave of progress should carry the
people to a higher place on the sands of life. To the outside world
little is known of the beg