AGY-4886 | Royal Commission of Inquiry into the Institution for the Blind, Strathfield

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The Royal Commission of Inquiry into the Institution for the Blind at Stathfield was appointed by Letters Patent on 22 December 1897 to make a diligent and full inquiry into the “Home-teaching Society for the Blind” and of the “Industrial Home for Blind Women and Retreat for the Aged Female blind”, and other matters connected therewith.(1) The following Commissioners were appointed: Joseph Barling, Chairman of the Public Service Board and an Associate of the Institution of Civil Engineers; George Alexander Wilson, member of the Public Service Board and a Justice of the Peace; and James Powell, Deputy member of the Public Service Board and a Justice of the Peace. The Commissioners were to report within three months.(2) The basis of the Inquiry were allegations contained in minutes of a report of the late Director of Government Asylums on the Institution at Strathfield.(3) The Commission decided to investigated:
i) the financial administration and general management of the Institution as an organization in receipt of subsidy from the Government;
ii) the utility of its work in meeting a public requirement; and
iii) the conduct of Mr Prescott, a techer and librarian at the Strathfield Insitute.(4) After the Commission’s investigations, including visitation of the Institute, the Commission recommended the following: i) the aged and infirm inmates of the Strathfield Home be removed to the Newington Asylum; ii) the two inmates from Tasmania be returned to the care of the Government of the Colony; iii) that pending the receipt of the report of the Royal Commission on Public Charities, no further subsidy be paid to the Institution for the Blind, Strathfield; iv) that in the case of all Institutions to which Government subsidies are granted, the strictest Government supervision be exercised over the expenditure of those subsidies, and that the operations of the Institutions be open to the most rigorous scrutiny of any officer appointed by the Government to make inquiry in regard thereto; v) that the evidence be referred to the Crown Law Officers with a view to a determination being arrived at as to what further action, if any, shall be taken in regard to the more serious charges disclosed therein.(5) The Commission submitted its Report to the Governor on 22 March 1898.(6) ENDNOTES
1. Letters Patent, Report of the Royal Commission appointed to make A diligent and full inquiry into the Home-teaching Society for the Blind, and the Industrial Home for the Blind Women and Retreat for the Aged Female Blind, Strathfield, and other matters connected therewith, p.iii, Votes and Proceedings of the Legislative Assembly, 1898, vol.3.
2. loc. cit.
3. ibid., p.v.
4. ibid., p.v and p.xiii.
5. ibid., p.xviii.
6. loc. cit.