Bisley Boys Refuge

Pauperism and Crime, the Boys' Refuge at Bisley near Woking. illus. Editorial.

Pauperism, crime, and the insufficiency of the present Poor-laws have recently been brought prominently before the public in papers read by Dr. Stallard and Dr. Hawksley, in the one case at a meeting of a department of the Social Science Association, and in the other in the rooms of the Royal Society of Arts, under the auspices of the London Association for the prevention of Pauperism and Crime, Lord Shaftesbury presiding..... With the deepest interest in the object at heart, we must express regret that a fresh society has been formed to effect what the Social Science Association has long more or less actively urged, and is at this moment specially engaged upon. It would surely be better if the efforts of all interested in it were concentrated, and a more speedy result might then be expected. No trifling efforts will be needed to stop the spread of pauperism. Individuals are getting richer, masses poorer: and many causes are in operation tending to bring this about. Besides some that have been already dwelt on, we must regard the present enormous amount of Imperial taxation and the inequality of local rating as powerful agents. Whole parishes are being pauperised by these causes alone. In the exceptionally taxed parishes, the small shopkeeper finds it impossible to pay his way, falls out of the rate-paying class into the aid receiving body, and this increases the fatal pressure on those who are still struggling. What sound reason can be given for forcing a man who lives on one side of a street to pay 4s or 5s in the pound for the relief of the poor, while his neighbour on the other side of it, perhaps even his rival in trade, is not called upon for more than 1s or 1s-6d in the pound. The only argument that can be adduced is one of selfishness. It is to be hoped that efforts for a remedy of this evil will be persevered in. Such injustice cannot much longer endure. It is simply a question of time. Again, our system of building on short leases is gradually transferring all house property to a few persons - handing over the accumulated savings of thousands to comparatively few landowners. The same system has given us miles of ill-built, ill-ventilated, and insufficiently drained, fever producing piles of rubbish, which, at the expiration of the short lease on which they have been "run-up" will have to be repaired and set in order by the unlucky then owner before delivering them up. If this system do not produce a convulsion one of these years the teaching of history is worth nothing. We hear of one well-known nobleman who can tell the date of the year in which his descendant's income from property in the metropolis will be a million a year, and no one able to say what he will do with it. A promising young nobleman, with some £400,000 a year already, has recently put himself under the guidance of an alien church; the coming men of a million a year each may prefer an alien king, or, at any rate, spend their wealth without any reference to the well-being of those who have placed it on their land for them. One result of this system is that shelter gets dearer; houses grow worse and worse. Overcrowding destroys the stamina and self-respect of their occupants, and produces a population of sickly paupers and evil-doers. If we would prevent the spread of the evils we are deploring the children must be taken in hand. There are about 100,000 children in the metropolis alone uncared for who may be made either a curse or a blessing to society, just as society chooses. An enormous responsibility this surely. Education and industrial training must be afforded to all, and insisted on from all. Parents who will not give their children decent training must be made to do so. This should be one of the first works of the new parliament. The opposition to such legislation would be much less than some seem to fear. Notwithstanding the enormous sums we spend annually in alleviating poverty and punishing the criminal, we do comparatively nothing to prevent pauperism or crime. Calculations that we made some little time ago, and which have been confirmed by the statements of Dr Hawksley and Dr. Stallard, show that the money expended on the poor through the agency of charitable societies, parochial bodies, and private donors must be at least eight millions per annum: the punishment of crime, according to official statistics, costs about four millions, and we estimate the cost of crime to the public, the extent to which the criminal class destroy instead of producing, at six millions, making, in the whole, as an expenditure of eighteen millions of pounds sterling annually. Against indiscriminate almsgiving we wage war. Indiscriminate medical relief is the first move towards destroying self-dependence and showing the recipient the way to the workhouse. Of discriminate charity we cannot have too much; the charity that knows, and aids at the right time; that prevents the break-up of the home that inspires fresh hope; that shows the field for profitable exertion. The able-bodied should be forced to work, if they would eat; and they should be made to do work that will pay. The work in vain system is wasteful, demoralizing, and abominable. We want the result of every man's labour. The payment should be by piece-work. The making and maintenance of roads, embanking rivers, draining, the manufacture of clothes for the poor, for the army and navy, and above all the reclamation of waste lands are all works to which such labour might be fairly applied. There are millions of acres of uncultivated land in England and Ireland on which labour might be profitably employed. We shall want legislation to enable public bodies to employ the destitute. Aid might be given to those who would emigrate - not to the colonies or another country, but to those waste lands at home, their to bring up their children in habits of industry and self-dependence, and to make the desert smile. With less of indiscriminate almsgiving, as we said before, we want more real intelligent charity, personal help, and Christian sympathy ; sympathy - "Which hath an operation more divine. - Than breath or pen can give expression to." Above all things let us take up the children. The strong feeling we have in that direction leads us to make this an opportunity to bring before our readers the last step taken by those who manage what are known as "The Refuges for Homeless and Destitute Children" whose head-quarters are in Great Queen Street, Holborn. The house there was found too small to receive the crowds of outcasts that came for succour. In 1866 the -Chichester- training-ship offered the means of training for a sea-faring life to some 200 boys, but the mission still grew, and it was determined to erect a house at Bisley, in Surrey, to which it is proposed to transfer the young and weakly boys from the London Refuge, so that they may be trained to look after cows and pigs, grow vegetables, till the land, and thus be fitted for service at home or in the colonies. To so good an enterprise we wish the best success. The new building consists of a centre and two wings, connected together by corridors. The centre contains the committee room, store-rooms, living room for the master, and separate infirmaries. The left hand wing contains workshops for several departments, and a broad open dormitory over. The right hand wing contains the dining room, with a similar spacious dormitory above. In the rear the kitchen and proper offices are erected as separate buildings: and again in the rear of each of the wings are swimming baths and lavatories. The total frontage of the buildings is about 160 ft and the entire cost £5,775. The architects are Messrs E Habershon, Brock and Webb; the builders Messrs Carter & Son of Horseferry Road Westminster. The style, it will be seen, is of a sort of Gothic, with bands and patterns of coloured bricks, and walling of red bricks. The dormitories have open timber roofs, and accommodation is made for 150 boys. The farm consists of 88 acres. Mr. W.Williams, the hard working secretary of this association said, at the opening of the new building last month, that in the previous year there were gathered from the streets into the refuge no less than 246 boys, and up to the end of November, 310 had been received, and for the 21 days of this month 50 more had been received, and still they came, begging to be received. We need not enlarge upon the advantages accruing to the public as well as to the boys themselves in so large a number being rescued from misery and vice, instead of being allowed to drift into the criminal and dangerous class. The advantages are apparent to any one who will give the subject a moment's thought. At the present time there are 160 boys on board the - Chichester - being educated and trained for the Royal Navy and Merchant service, 166 boys in another refuge, and 50 at the country home, and upwards of 100 inmates in the two refuges for girls. With a view of further converting the waste going on in human material and turning it into useful labour, the committee have raised the building we now illustrate, and to which they purpose transferring the young and weakly boys from the London Refuge, so that they may be fitted for service at home or in the colonies. While urging the immediate necessity for larger and more comprehensive measures to stem the advancing tide of pauperism and crime, we point with admiration to what is being done by this particular association.

Source:
The Builder 1869 Vol XXVII pp021, 9th January 1869
Submitted by Alan Longbottom.