Page:History of Australia, Rusden 1897.djvu/374

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Sydney, and the Orpliaii House and groimds, were held by tJie committee, conBisting of ilrs. King, Mik. Paterson, Kev. Samuel Marsden, the principal surgeon (T. Jamison), the commisBary (pJ, Palmer), and the naval officer (Dr,^ Harris) . | How necessary, and how lieneficial, the institution has been may be gathered from the last paper (1806) in which its founder described it. There were then 1808 children of both sexeB tinder nineteen years of age. Only 900 of tliem were legitimate. Four hundred and thirty-four were main- tained from the government storeSj the rest by their parents. The managing committee, under the Governor, had remained almost the same throughout* When Maraden went to England he handed to the succeedmg secretary ^ £845. ■ Six of the girls had ** been well married and portioned ™ with £10 sterling eacli, and eleven had been apiu*enticed to officers' wives, and other respectable persons." Between sixty and seventy giils were in the school. As King sailed with his Mife from Port Jackson in 1806, in the shipj which carried I^Ir. Marsden also, he wrote ; '* A most aiiicere wish ia formeil by tJioae who have had the principal I irjanageiiient of it, and are aliotit l^ luavu tht colony, that its auc4,'ea»| and good maTia-genitnt may long continue, l^eiog well perBoaded that Dothing else can make the rising generation useful to themselves or 1 rredi table to the country their |>arenlB came from. Nor can thoM wlio have felt such anxiety for the siieceas of this henevoleut institution lose siglit of the land it in placed in without repeating the sentence— K<te j Perpettta-~v;'hich haa l>een adopted as the motto of the asylum, and engraved on a atone placed over the front door of the house, with the ] rnonth and year of its commencement iiil.st August 1801)."** When King retired, in 180(>, he wrote a separate despatch annonncing that Governor Eligh would protect the institu- tion, the intention of which would he ** materially promoted hy his aniiahle daughter having undertaken to succeed Mrs. King in the internal snperintendenee." An attempt was made in 1B08 to form a siniilar asylum for boyf^ at the Hawlcesbury, hut the original scheme was abandoned, and the huildmg wan used as a day Bchool. i

  • ^ In IHlOthe 8<'hf>ol was removed from George-street, Sydney^ to Arthurs

Hdl, Parranmtta, where, under the direction of Mr. Maraden, a hidhlin^ had t>een eonrpleted in the course of tive yeara — IHh'l to 1818— on land grunted hy King.