8 APRIL 1911, Page 14

AFTER-CARE AND EMPLOYMENT OF BLIND, DEAF, AND CRIPPLED CHILDREN.

[To TEE EDITOR Or THE "SPECTATOR."' SIR,—Parliament has imposed upon the local authorities the duty of providing special and necessarily expensive education for physically defective children. The education so provided is intended to enable these children to become ultimately self- supporting. This can only be done by placing as many boys and girls as is possible in suitable employment after they have left school. To find such employment is quite beyond the capacity of the average parent, for it requires time, attention, and knowledge. But it can be done, and the Association of which I am President have, as can be shown from their records, achieved in this direction remarkable success. The majority of the boys and girls they have placed in employment are doing well, and seem likely to become happy and useful members of the community. But we are terribly hampered in our work from lack of funds. We have now one hundred and five cases on our books, and ten of these will at once lose their chance of a successful opening unless we receive immediate help. It is no exaggeration to say that alms given to assist these poor maimed children to become self-supporting in their after-life produces fruit a hundred fold.—I am, Sir, &c., GEORGE HAMILTON, President of the After-care of Physically Defective Children. 17 Montagu Street, W.