The Destitute Persons Act 49 and 50 Vic, Amendment Act 1886 (SA)

VICTORIB REGIN&.

A.D. 1886.

No. 387.

An Act to amend " The Destitute Persons Act, 188 I ."

[ Assmted to, November r 7th, 1886.1

HEREAS it is expedient to amend '' The Destitute Persons Pre-ble.

W Act, 1881 "-Be it therefore Enacted bp the Governor of the

Province of South Australia, with the advice and consent of the

Legislative Council and House of Assembly of the said province, in

this present Parliament assembled, as follows:

1, This Act may be cited as a The Destitute Persons Act Short Title.

be incorporated and read with C L The Destitute Persons Act, 1881," Incorporation. Amendment Act," and, except so far as inconsistent therewith, shall

" child," IC destitute child," neglected child " and '; convicted child " cud ."

2. An honorary board, under the name of The State Children's state COUUCI~ children's may be

Council" (hereinafter referred t o as the Council), to be corn- appointed. posed of not more than twelve persons, shall, as soon as con- veniently practicable after the passing of' this Act, be appointed

by the Governor, which Council, in all matters appertaining to

the boarding out, licensing out, adoption, and apprenticing of State

children under this Act, shall, subject to the control of the Go- vernor, have the care, management, and control of all Industrial Schools, Reformatory Schools, and houses of reception herebefore Theirpowers

appointed or hereafter to be appointed, and shall be the authority for the boarding out, licensing out, adoption, or apprepticeship of

al l State children, and their removal, recall, and restoration to their

Parents or guardians.

3. " State child " in this Act shall have the same meanings as n,tlnition of 6. shte

49' & 50' VICTORIW, No. 387.

7

The Destitute Persons Act Amendment Act,- 188 6.

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in the principal Act, and under thc apc of eighteen ycars, whether male or female; and all children, whether committed by Justices, or

Couneato

trol of children.	declared in any other manner a destitute, criminal, neglected, or un. controllable child, or for any other cause, being subject to the care and control of the &ate, shall be committed and placed under the care of the Council, who shall have absolute authority over such child for
the purposes of this Act.
Bepealof part motion

24 of The Destitute 4, Section 24 of " The Destitute Persons Act, 1881," shall be

pB,,k, l ~ B l ~. read as if the words, " and shall also have the control and super.

- vision of schools as hereinafter mentioned for the education, employment, and training up of destitute, neglected, and convicted children, and the licensing out and apprenticing children," had been omitted from the said section.

Construction of Part

III. of ssme Act.	5. The whole .of Part 111. of "'The Destitute Persons Act, 1881," and any other part of that Act relating to destitute and neglected children shall be read and construed as if the words,
' G the State Children's Council" were inserted therein in lieu of
the words, the Board" and L ' the Chairman of the Board," where- ever the same occur, unless such substitution shall conflict with this Act, and the forms containcd in the Schcdulc to that Act shall, whenever necessary, be read as altered accordingly.
President to be

appointed. 6. The president of the said council shall be appointed by the

Governor, and shall preside at all meetings of the council; and the council may appoint one of their own number to be vice-president. Five members shall constitute a quorum.

COmcil may

regulations, &c. 7. It shall be lawful for the Council to frame regulations from

time to time for-

I. Regulating generally the rnanagcm cnt and discipline of

Industrial and Reformatory Schools, and houses of recep tion:

11. Providing for and prescribing the mode of removal and of free carriage on all Government railways of State children, together with any oEcer of the Council in charge of such children, and of free access to and from any public schools by such railways:

111. Prescribing the terms end conditions of issuing licences to

persons desirous of	receiving State children as boarders or
for service:

IV. Providing for the visitation and inspection of State children

boarded out, licensed out, or apprenticed:

v. Prescribing the terms and conditions upon which State

children may be adopted by fit persons:

YI. Prescribing the person or persons by whom and in whose

name State children may be apprenticed, and the conditions

of indentures of such apprenticeship:

vrr. Providing

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The Destitute Persons Act Amendment Act.-1886.

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VII. Providing for the cancelling of any indentures of apprentice- ship, licences for boarding out, adoption, or for service, in case of ill-treatment of any State child, or misconduct of the person in whose care such child shall have been placed, or in the case of the misconduct or unsuitnlsleness of the child for the employmcnt to which he has been indentured:

VIII. Prescribing the mode of conducting the business of the

Council at all meetings thereof:

IX. Declaring the duties of officers, and their relation to thc

Council:

X. Defining the outfit which each child to be boarded out,

licensed out, or apprenticed, shall be supplied with before

removal for that purpose:

XI. Providing for the education of State children, under thirteen

years of age, who have not passed the educational stan-

dard provided by the Education Act and regulations:

XII. Providing for the punishment of such children for absconding or misbehaving in any school or place under control of the Council, or absconding from any person with whom they may be boarded out, licensed out, or apprenticed:

XIII. Providing for medical attendance to any State child when

necessary, and for the burial of any deceased State child:

XIV, Providing for the attendance at some place of worship of

State children, and generally for their moral training and

discipline whilst boarded out, licensed out, or apprenticed:

xv. Establishing n fund to be called the Reward Fund, to be diatributed as rewards for good conduct to children under the control of the Council:

xvr. Prescribing the mode, time, and place of payment for the maintenance of children licensed out, boarded out, or apprenticed to the persons with whom they are so boarded;

XVII. Providing fbr the paytucnt to the Council of the wages of

the children due by persons to whom they are licensed out

or apprenticed:

~ V I I I. Prescribing the mode, time, place, and guarantee of payment

for maintenance of children admitted into industrial and

reformatory schools as State children, and afterwards boarded out according to thc provisions of this Act, but whose parents are able in whole or in part to defray the cost of such maintenance:

XIX. Prescribing the mode of proceedings by the police for

demanding and collecting maintenance fees:

xx. Providing

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!Die Destitute Persons Act Amendaent Act.-1886,

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xx. Providing for the establishment of a house of reception and

cottage homes whenever neoessary and practicable:

XXI. Providing for the closing of the Magi11 Industrial School,

and any other industrial or reformatory school when

children are otherwise provided for:

xxrr. And generally for carrying out the purposes of this Act in

all matters of detail ~ha~tsoever :

Regulations to be

approved and

And all such regulations when approved by the Governor in Councii,

gazetted,

and published in the Government Gazette, shdl have force of law,

And to be judicially

and any Government Gazette containing a copy of such regulations

noticed.

shall be received in evidence and judicially noticed in all proceedings whatsoever. All regulations shall also be laid before Parliament, and any breach of any such regulations shall be punishable by a penalty not exceeding Ten Pounds, recoverable in a summary way.

Age of child.

8, The Justices, whenever committing a child to the care of the

Council, shall inform themsclves as fully as they can of the child's

*

age and religion, and there shall be inserted in mandate detaining or committing such child a statement of the age and religion of such child; and in every proceeding, criminal or civil, the statement in such mandate thak such child is of a certain age and religion therein specified shdl be taken to be true until the contrary is proved,

Parents liable for Q. The parents of every child, upon its being committed to the

maintenance.	care of the Council, shall be liable to pav to the Council for its maintenance a sum not less than two 'shillings per week nor more than ten shillings per week until such child shall have attained the age of fourteen years.
Yaintenanee few,
how rccovered.	10, 911 maintenance fees shall be sued for and recovered by the Council in a summary way in the manner provided in sections 7 and
8 of the principal Act.

Wage8 may be

retained until child	11, Notwithstanding anything contained in section 68 of the principal Act, no wages or sums of money deposited, either M principal or intercst in the Savings Bank to the credit of any child, as provided in the said section, shall be payable to such child lmtil
eighteen.
Proviso.	he or she shall havs attained the age of eighteeu years: Provided that should any girl, with the consent of the Council, marry before attaining that age, any money standing to her credit may be settled upon her in such manner as the council may determine.

12. If any person ill-uses or neglects to perform his contract in

respect of any child boarded out, licensed out, or apprenticed to such

person, or violates any regulation concerning such child, such person shall be liable to a penalty of not exceeding Ten Pounds, or be imprisoned with or without hard labor for any term not exceeding three months.

ahsconaingmy

be punished. 13. If any child boarded out, licensed out, or apprenticed under

the authority of this Act absconds from the person with whom he ir

placed,

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me Destitute Persons Act Amendment Act.-1886.

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P laced, or refuses at the end of his term of boarding out, licensing out, or apprenticeship, but before the end of his term of detention

(if any), to return to his original place of detention, such child shall

be liable to be whipped (if a male) with a birch rod or cane, and (whether male or female) to the punishment of bread and water, in accordance with the directions contained in the regulation.

If any person shall, directly or indirectly, withdraw from or counsel or induce any child boarded out, licensed out, or apprenticed

Penalty for with-

drawing, harbouring,

&C., children.

to abscond from the person with whom such child is boarded out, licensed out, or apprenticed, before the expiration of his term of boarding out, licensing out, or apprenticeship, or, knowing any child to have been so withdrawn or to have so abscondcd, shall harbor

or conceal such child or prevent him from returning to the person

with whom he was boarded out, licensed out, or apprenticed or to

the place of his original detention (as the case may be), such person

shall bc liable for any such offence to a, penalty of not exceeding Twenty Pounds, or to be imprisoned with or without hard labor for

any term not exceeding three months.

14,

15, The expenses incurred in respect of children maintained, Expenses Low de-

boarded out, licensed out, or apprenticed under this Act, and the

frayed.

necessary current expenditure incurred by the Council for giving effect to the provisions of this -4ct, shall be defrayed and expended in the most economical manner by the said Council from such moneys as Par- liament shall appropriate for the purposes of destitute poor, under the titles in the Estimates of Girls' Reformatory, Industrial Schools, and Criminal and Deserted Children, and State Children's Council,

16. All gifts of money, and all property and moneys bequeathed Gifia and m o ~ 8 bequeathed to be

to the Council by will for the benefit of State children, shall be bT,,bd.

invested in thc best manner possible for the benefit and advance-

ment in life of State children.

missal of all officcrs and persons connected with industrial and officers, &c. 17. The Council shall have the power of appointment and dis- Power to appoint

reformatory schools, criminal and deserted children, and State children, and all officers and servants emploved in connection with the said institutions shall, from and after the jate of this Act coming into operation, be under the orders and management of the said Council.

18. The Council shall report to the Governor once or of tener in c o ~ i l to report to

every year on the working of this Act, and shall in such report tho Governor.

specify the number of children in the several institutions under their

control, thc number boarded out or licensed out during the past

year or portion thereof, the number apprenticed, and any other

particulars which the Chief Secretary may direct from time to time to be included in such report. All repork shall be laid before Parliament.

4.9' & 50' VICTORIA, No. 387.

17ce Destitute Persuns Act Amendment Act*-- 1886.

T a or hear% may

be held privately. 19. When any hearing or trial takes place of any child, the

Court or Justices may direct that all persons not directly interested

in the case shall be excluded from the Court or place where such

hearing is being held or conducted, and whenever practicable in the opinion of the Court or Justices, the father or mother, and, in the

case of State children, an officer of the Council: shall bc present.

Unlawful desertionof 20, In addition to the remedies provided by section 9 of c' The

wife, &C., a misde-	Destitute Persons Act,	1881," whenever	any husband u n l a w f ' ~ ~ ~
meanor.

deserts his wife, or leaves her without or fails to provide her with adequate means of support, or when any father or mother deserts his or her child under the age of fourteen years, or leaves them without

or fails to provide them with adequate means of support, and goes

to reside beyond the province of South Australia, either temporarily or permanently, such husband, fathcr, or mother, shall be deemed to be guilty of a misdemeanor, punishable with hard labor, for any term not exceeding twelve months.

Justice may iaeue

warrant. 21. I n any of the cases specified in the last preceding section,

if complaint be made on oath to any Justice of the Peace by

any respectable person, snch Justice, upon the production of a certificate under the hand of the Chairman of the Destitute Board that such complaint is well founded, may, if satisfied that an offence has been committed within the meaning of the said section, but not otherwise, issue his warrant fbr the apprehension of the person against whom such complaint has been made.

Certain breaches of

" The Destitute 22. Every person who refuses, fails, or neglects to comply with

Persons 1881," an order made against him by Justices, under any of the provisions

created an offence if	of " The Destitute Persons Act, 188 1 ," and goes to reside beyond
off ender leaves
prouince.	the province of South Australia, either permanently or temporarily,
with intent to evade such order, shall be deemed to be guilty of a misdemeanor, punishable by imprisonment with hard labor for any term not exceeding twelve months.

Provieion aa t o 23. Section 14 of Part 1. of the principal Act is hereby repealed,

iuegi6mate children.

. and, in lieu thereof. it is hereby enacted that the provisions of the prin- cipal Act shall extend to and bc made use of by and on behalf of illegitimate children as against the fathcr or mother of such children:

Proviso.

Provided that no man shall be adjudged to be the father of an ille- gitimate child upon the evidence of the mother, unless such evidence be corroborated in some material particular by other evidence to the satisfaction of the Justices hearing the case: And provided also that, if it be proved by evidence before the said Justices that at

the time such child was begotten the mother of it was a common

prostitute, no order shall be made hereunder as against the alleged

father of such child.

I n d e d c a tion of 24. All transfers from the Industrial School to any reformatory

DeBtitute B* for

t r d e r e. heretof~re made by the Destitute Board, or the chairman, members,

or

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The Destitute Persons Act Amendmefzt Act.-1886.

or officers thereof arc hcreby declared to have been legal, and the chairman, members, and officers of the Destitute Board are hereby indemnified against all liability in respect thereof'.

In the name and on behalf of Her Majesty, I hereby assent to

this Bill.

WILLIAM C. F.- ROBINSON, Governor.

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Adelaide : By authority, E. SPILLER, Government Printer, North-terrace,