ABSTRACT
To only one other branch of Board-day .work oan I refer (though I would insert the remark that a womfW. must not hope to escape her fair share in all the · ord,i. nary business of the Sltting, however tedious it may be). The election of the officers for the various po.sts. of thi:l union is a very interesting duty of the guardians, though it rests with the Local Government Board, as I hav~ said, to confirm the appointment. Especially .. in ·th~ choice of female officers-matrons. and .sub-matroiUJJ nurses, schoolmistresses, and servants, a woman's judg ... ment and instinct have to be often exercised. , ·
And now I come to the "Boarding-out" department. My lady colleague and I were put each year on the committee for that object, and felt in our right place there. Choosing "homes" for the children is as important as visiting· them in those hOl'Jrn~ and the general Vigilance over their interests with the endeavour to adjust difficulties of all kinds, from details of clothing to the moral management of the child, involved a considerable amount of thought and care. In Leeds the children are boarded, with a few exceptio;ns, within the area of the union-from 80 to 100 of them-and are under the inspection of an officer who visits regularly to make payments and report their condition, but we found him most thankful for the co-operation and counsel of the guardians, and we ladies especially were made the repository of many of his perplexities as well as those of the foster-mothers, who moot cheerfully welcomed us to the homes ; while sometimes we had to try to get at the children's confidences if we suspected anything worthy of complaint. It would have1 been enough to employ our whole time to superintend this department efficiently; with other duties it was impossible to visit all the children, or to follow them up as they went out into ·the world. The " Boarding-out Inspector" also 'cisits the~ young servants and apprentices placed in situations oy the guardians, and many of the girls on his list required the kind solicitude of a lady friend. .My colleague did far more than I in both these last directions, as in others, having the girls up to her own house and proving herself practically their friend.
