Mary Carpenter and the Child-Saving Movement

Abstract

The nineteenth century English advocate of reformatory schools, Mary Carpenter, was a powerful influence in New South Wales from about 1860 until well into the twentieth century. Her ideas were clearly evident in the Second Report of the Royal Commission on Public Charities in New South Wales tabled in the New South Wales Legislative Assembly in 1874.¹ Various aspects of the printed report indicate that the Commissioners had a working knowledge of Mary Carpenter's central ideas concerning the education and care of dependent and delinquent children and that the Commissioners had studied in some detail at least some of her many writings on the subject. In 1895 the Colony of New South Wales further recognized the importance of Mary Carpenter's work by naming the newly opened government reformatory for boys after her.² This was slightly ironical as Mary Carpenter, adhering strongly to the philanthropic voluntary principle, was implacably opposed to the idea of government-run reformatories. The Carpentarian Reformatory in the Sydney suburb of Eastwood was the first official institution of its kind for boys in N.S.W.³