Those who are acquainted with his zeal, not to say pertinacity, in any benevolent work he undertakes may rest assured that nothing will be wanting on his part to bring about the achievement of the object he has in view. Moreover, the project is of such a nature as to commend itself to the thoughtful and the far-seeing if its practicability to the circumstances of the Dominion can be assured.
He advocates the establishment of extensive farm colonies, where the mentally defective and those who for other reasons are unemployable under competitive conditions, may, while contributing some meed of labour in return for their support, be placed in an environment favourable to their physical and mental recuperation.
He supports his case by reference to the success with which the adoption of some such scheme has been attended in Belguim and in Germany. There can be no cavil at - indeed, nothing but approval of - the underlying principle of the suggestion. In the main it runs on all fours with the famous proposal enunciated by General Booth many years ago, when outlining his great Darkest England scheme, that the criminal and the unfit should be required to pay a part of the cost of their reclamation and their reformation.
Moreover, the scheme may be seen in actual operation in the farm colonies established in many parts of the world by the Salvation Army, with the sanction and sometimes the financial assistance of the several Governments concerned. The same principle is in operation in the tree-planting stations which are maintained in connection with the prison system of the Dominion, with beneficial results on the habits and characters of the prisoners employed.
But, while the principle on which the suggestion of Canon Curzon- Siggers is based is unassailable, there may be a degree of difficulty in its application. There is, of course, the possibility that these farm colonies might be established as an adjunct of the special school at Otekaieke, where ultimately it is hoped the feeble-minded of both sexes will receive all the care and attention that science and experience can suggest.
Under such circumstances there would be the additional advantage of segregation, so that the untold evil of permitting such defectives to reproduce their kind might be guarded against. Whatever the difficulties which stand in the way, the suggestion is a valuable one.
- ODT, 12.6.1911.
