ANNEX 1
National Children's Home outfits and maintenanceThis
Agreement is made the twenty fifth day of July 1957 between the
Secretary of State for Commonwealth Relations (one of Her Majesty's
Principal Secretaries of State, hereafter called the "Secretary
of State") of the one part and the National Children's Home
and Orphanage (hereafter called the "Society") of the
other part.WHEREAS pursuant to the Commonwealth and the Empire
Settlement Acts, 1922 to 1957, the Secretary of State and the
Government of the Commonwealth of Australia (hereafter referred
to as the "Government of Australia") have entered into
an agreement dated 1 April 1957, providing for assistance in respect
of passages to Australia for selected migrants from the United
Kingdom.AND WHEREAS the Secretary of State and the Society now
desire to co-operate in carrying out a scheme (hereafter called
"the said scheme") the provisions of which are set out
in this Agreement:
(a) whereby children from the United Kingdom
selected for settlement in Australia may be provided with the
necessary outfit before embarkation; and
(b) whereby provision may be made for their care,
maintenance and training in Australia as provided in this Agreement.AND
WHEREAS the Government of Australia at present contribute £10
(Australian) towards the cost of such outfit for each child approved
under this scheme.AND WHEREAS the Government of Australia and
the Government of Victoria contribute towards the cost of the
maintenance of each such child up to the age of 16 years.AND WHEREAS
the United Kingdom Treasury have consented to the said scheme.NOW
IT IS HEREBY AGREED as follows:
1. The Society shall select children in the United
Kingdom for settlement in Australia and shall submit to the Secretary
of State and the Government of the Commonwealth of Australia for
their approval the names of such children with any particulars
that may be required by the Secretary of State within such period
before embarkation for Australia as the Secretary of State may
prescribe. The children so selected shall be children who, at
the time of selection, are under 16 years of age, are British
subjects and are resident in the United Kingdom.
2. The Secretary of State will pay to the Society
a contribution of £4 (Sterling) towards the cost of outfit
to which the Government of Australia have contributed in respect
of each child embarked under the said scheme after 31 May 1957
and before 1 June 1960. As soon as possible after each embarkation
of children under the said scheme the Society shall submit to
the Secretary of State in such form as the Secretary of State
may from time to time require a certificate to notify him of the
children embarked as aforesaid. Upon the receipt of such certificate
the Secretary of State will pay to the Society the amount of the
said contribution due under this clause in respect of the children
embarked.
3. (a) In this agreement, except in clause
13, references hereafter to a child or to children mean a child
who has or children who have proceeded to Australia under the
said scheme after 31 May 1957, and before 1 June 1960;
(b) References in this Agreement to an establishment
mean and include such establishment in Australia for the care,
maintenance, and training of children with which the Society is
associated as the Secretary of State may from time to time approve
for the purpose of this Agreement.
4. The Society shall be responsible for the care
and maintenance of all children and for their receiving such training
as shall fit them for permanent settlement in Australia. The Society
shall ensure that the responsible head of their staff at the said
establishment is acquainted with the history and background of
each child up to the date of his arrival at the establishment.
The Society shall use their best endeavours to find suitable occupations
for the children according to their training and aptitude when
they leave the said establishment and shall keep in touch with
such children and render them every possible assistance thereafter.
5. The following general considerations shall
govern the arrangements for the care of children:
(a) the staff employed at the said establishment
shall be sufficient in number, shall include women, and shall
be as far as possible persons with knowledge and experience of
child care methods;
(b) there shall be adequate opportunity
for children to be assimilated to Australian life, and to this
end:
(i) children shall be encouraged to
take part, as far as possible, in the normal life of the community;
(ii) the practice of arranging for
children to spend the school holidays in private homes shall be
developed to the full, a child going to the same home wherever
possible;
(c) wherever possible suitable arrangements
shall be made to board children permanently with foster parents;
(d) the Society shall ensure in relation
to children who are sent to private homes that they are sent only
to private homes which are suitable in all respects for such children
and that they remain only in such suitable homes;
(e) children shall not ordinarily remain
at the said establishment between leaving school and entering
outside employment, except for the purpose of receiving training
for the occupation that they intend to follow; and
(f) there shall be an adequate standard
of comfort and amenity for the children at the said establishment
and at private homes.
6. The Society shall furnish the Secretary of
State with a certificate in such form as the Secretary of State
may from time to time require in respect of all children who have
been maintained at the said establishment in the quarter to which
such certificate relates. If on receipt of the certificate under
this clause the Secretary of State is satisfied that the children
referred to in the certificate have been actually maintained at
the said establishment in the quarter to which the certificate
relates, he shall pay to or to the account of the Society an amount
at the rate of 10s. (Sterling) a week towards the maintenance
of each child in respect of whom he is satisfied as aforesaid.
Provided that
(a) no payment shall be made under this
clause in respect of children towards whose maintenance no Government
of a State in Australia has contributed during the quarter to
which the certificate refers;
(b) no payment shall be made under this
clause in respect of the maintenance of any child beyond the date
upon which he reaches his sixteenth birthday;
(c) the maximum number of children towards
whose maintenance the Secretary of State may contribute under
this clause shall be fifty;
(d) if during the currency of this agreement
additional financial assistance is made by the Government of Australia
or a State Government or is made from any other public source
in respect of the maintenance of the said children the Secretary
of State reserves the right to lower the amount of his contribution
under this clause by an amount not exceeding the amount of such
additional financial assistance.
7. The Society shall, on request from time to
time provide the Secretary of State for the Home Department with
information on the following matters:
(a) the methods of, and criteria for, selecting
children for migration;
(b) the care and preparation of the children
until their departure;
(c) arrangements for the journey to Australia;
and
(d) the transmission to Australia of information
about children and their background and
give the Secretary of State for the Home Department
access to such of their records as may relate to the information
specified in this clause. The Society shall co-operate with the
officials of the Secretary of State for the Home Department in
order to enable such officials to see the work being done by the
Society to which (a), (b), (c) and (d) above relate.
8. The Society shall keep proper books of accounts
in regard to the said scheme, shall employ a firm of professional
accounts approved by the Secretary of State to audit such accounts
and shall instruct such auditors to furnish any information regarding
such accounts which the Secretary of State may require. The Society
shall if the Secretary of State so requires produce for inspection
by such persons as he may direct any documents or accounts relating
to the said scheme; and shall furnish to such person or to the
Secretary of State such information or explanations as may be
required.
9. Notwithstanding the provisions of this Agreement
the total amount of the contributions made by the Secretary of
State under this agreement shall not exceed half the total expenditure
under the said scheme. If at any time the total amount of the
Secretary of State's contributions exceeds such expenditure allowance
for such excess shall be made in any future payments due from
the Secretary of State under this agreement or the Society shall
pay to the Secretary of State the amount of such excess.
10. The Secretary of State and the Society shall
each bear their own expenses of administering the said scheme.
11. The Society shall co-operate with the Secretary
of State in enabling him to satisfy himself from time to time
that the provisions of this Agreement are being observed.
12. This Agreement shall be deemed to have commenced
on the first day of June 1957.
13. The Secretary of State's obligations under
any Agreement previously made between the Secretary of State and
the Society in respect of children who have proceeded to Australia
under a scheme referred to in such Agreement and his obligations
under this Agreement shall not extend beyond the period authorised
by the Commonwealth and Empire Settlement Acts, 1922 to 1957,
or any extension thereof.
14. The Secretary of State, if he is not satisfied
with the manner in which the said scheme is being administered
or carried out in any respect may by not less than three months
previous notice given to the Society at any time terminate his
obligations hereunder to such extent as may be stated in the said
notice.In Witness whereof John Percival Gibson on behalf of the
Secretary of State and John Walters Waterhouse on behalf of the
Society have signed this Agreement the day and year first above
written.
| Signed for and on behalf of
| |
| the Secretary of State
|
|
| for Commonwealth Relations |
|
| J P Gibson |
|
| Witness: | |
| Signed for and on behalf of
|
|
| the National Children's
|
|
| Home and Orphanage |
|
| John W Waterhouse
| |
| Witness: | M L Coleman
|
List of establishments approved by the Secretary of State for
the purpose of the Agreement between the Secretary of State and
the National Children's Home and Orphanage dated 25 July 1957.Orana,
87 Elgar Road, Burwood, Melbourne, Victoria.
| Signed for and on behalf of
|
|
| the Secretary of State
|
|
| for Commonwealth Relations |
|
| J P Gibson |
|
30 July 1957
appendices to the minutes of evidence taken
before
| 
