"Although we hear little now from our earliest exemplar, Massachusetts—possibly because she has, I believe, cleared away the class to be dealt with—it is desirable to remember it was she who evolved the then new principle of absolute separation of child from adult, and devised its potent supporter, the probation system—a system affording watchful and kindly help to strong and maybe wilful weaklings. Thus did Massachusetts become a noble example, making the way plain for her successors. Mr. Joseph Sturge, attracted early in the eighties by reports of the ‘plan,’ visited Boston to investigate its methods. He describes in a pithy narrative subsequently published how his highest expectations were fulfilled; and it is interesting to learn from his pen that ‘the probation system by which juvenile offenders are saved from imprisonment has been so successful, economically and morally, that the city of Boston now employs a probation agent to deal with suitable adult cases in a corresponding manner.’ "A copy of Mr. Sturge’s narrative reached, by good fortune, the Chief Justice of South Australia, then presiding at a Royal Commission of inquiry concerning adult and juvenile dependents on the State. He recognized, and in his forthcoming report expounded, the value of the Massachusetts plan in its application to children. The result was the creation by the South Australian Government of a department, entitled the State Children’s Council, consisting of 12 ladies and gentlemen nominated by the State as honorary members, to deal with erring and neglected children on the lines of that plan. … "Nineteen years ago the Children’s Court was opened in Adelaide, and in October, 1903, thanks, Sir, to your sympathetic courtesy, the reproduction in _The Times_ of a letter describing it in the _Melbourne Argus_ from Miss Alice Henry made known among us its scope, methods, and success. Gradually Benches of Magistrates in various parts of Great Britain and of Ireland who led the way tried the experiment, which was then discovered to be already existing among us here and there, and in a more or less developed form, as at Greenwich, Hull, &c." CHILDREN, UNDER THE LAW: As Workers: Canada: Child Labor Legislation.