Excerpt from Sanitary Statistics of Native Colonial Schools and Hospitals

If it is said on reading this paper, There is nothing in it, I answer, That is why I wrote it, because there is nothing in it, in order that something might come out of nothing. It is to show that statistics, capable of affording complete practical results when wanted, have scarcely made a beginning in the colonies. It is to show that when the Colonial Office, with great labour and no little cost, has collected, and I, with the same, have reduced these materials, they are incapable of giving all the beneficial information expected. The material does not exist, or, if it does, it is in a very undeveloped state. Such as it is, I have tried to do the best I could with it. And this is the result.

Several years ago, before Sir George Grey returned to his government at the Cape, I had a conversation with him on a subject which had dwelt very much on his mind, viz., the gradual disappearance of the aboriginal races from the neighbourhood of civilized communities. One of the points raised in the discussion was the probable effect which European school usages and school education might exercise on the health of the children of parents and of races who had never hitherto been brought under education.

It appeared of great importance to ascertain, if possible, the precise influence which school training exercised on the health of native children. And I applied to the Colonial Office for aid in carrying out such an inquiry. The Duke of Newcastle entered warmly into the subject, and offered at once to call for any information which might throw light on it. I had a simple school form prepared and printed, copies of which were sent by the Colonial Office to the Governors of the various colonies. Returns were made from a large number of schools, but as no information has been received from many more, I presume the school statistics did not afford the means of supplying the required information.

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