In the year 1870, 2,498 children passed through the charitable institutions of New South Wales. Lest the number of children be thought to be small, it might be noted that the population was about 500,000 and that the children represented, therefore, 0.5 per cent of all the persons in the Colony. In comparison, in 1972/3, 6,079 children, approximately 0.1 per cent of the population, passed through the institutions of the New South Wales Child Welfare Department. The care of dependent and delinquent children was in 1870 a problem of considerable magnitude. In this paper it is proposed to examine some of the policies and provisions in respect of those 2,498 children.
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