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present form should be continued as an economic proposition.
In an
effort to maintain the institution as it\\'as and, consequently, his own
tenure of office, Coverdale stressed to the Government the economic
advantages to be had from his management of the institutipn .
Persuaded
by the Superintendent 's economic rguments and his criticisms of the
handling of the "boarded out" children, the Government, without any
consideration of or enquiry into the welfare of the forty-two children ,
sggested to Tarleton that , unless special reasons existed for a larger
allo\\'ance, money payments above 2/6 per \\'eek for boarded-out children
should be reduced, as the Government \\'as nm\' in a position to offer the
alternative of their maintenance and education at the Orphan Asylum.
Tarleton, who ad declared his strong opposition to the
mechanical , loveless-life, devoid of all softening domestic influences ,
forced upon the orphans , as far back as the 1867 Gleadow Enquiry ,
responded \dth a furious attack c.gainst Coverdale and the Orphan Asylum.
His report to the Colonial Secretary, \\'hich \\'as laid before Pa.rliament
and ordered to be printed, chrged that t\\'enty-nine girls from the
institution were no\\' prostitutes, the inmates were generally uncared for,
starved and neglected, the institution was badly managed, and the children
on leaving it useless.
The Mercury agreed that the correspondence
between Tarleton and the Ministry showed the latter in a \\'eak and damaging
light,
the acme of sheer incompetence to keep up with the spirit
of the age, and of blindness to the signs of the times. 25
Hall, too, joined in the deb ate on the respective merits of
traini.ng destitute children in the Orphan Asylum, or of boarding them out.
Actually, it was the last of his numerous articles written on the children 's
behalf.
As he had done so often before in discussions of this nature
he found the amounts of money named by both parties to the dispute
insufficient for the proper maintenance and education of the children in
question, and , by . referring to similar institutionsand situations overseas,
appealed for a more generous and liberal attitude.
agreed sometimes \\'ith Tarleton , sometimes with Coverdale;
In other matters , he
I endorse all the Administrator of charitable Grants says
on the subject of false economy , exercised in the training
of the children to \\'hom the Government stands in loco parentis
and the importance of a \\'ise liberality in so providing for
such children that they may have sound minds in sound bodies ,
and be useful, self-supporting citizens hereafter , instead of
becoming permanent burdens on the community 'as invalids ,
paupers or criminals '.
25
Mercurl, July 19 , 1873.