ion between the agencies.

(_c_) By fresh retail shops.

3. May not a large proportion of the able-bodied blind be rendered
thoroughly self-supporting?

4. Should the education and training of the blind be to any extent
provided for from the rates or other State sources, and, if so, to
what extent?

The first paper read on the welfare of the blind had been forwarded by
Bessie, with an expression of deep regret "That the state of her health
prevented her from attending the meeting." She wrote as follows:

In endeavours to promote the welfare of the blind, it is essential
that some important facts should be borne in mind, viz.--

_1st._ That many blind persons, although instructed in some trade,
are either reduced to begging or are driven to the workhouse, not
through their own fault, but simply for the want of any regular
employment in their trade.

_2d._ That children constitute but a small proportion of the blind,
as about nine-tenths of the thirty thousand blind in the United
Kingdom become so above the age of twenty-one.

_3d._ That about half the sightless population live in rural
districts.

_4th._ That the health of persons without sight is, as a general
rule, below that of others.

_5th._ That this cause operates, in addition to loss of sight, to
bring about the slow rate at which the blind work as compared with
the sighted.

_6th._ That social ties are even more essential to the blind than
to others.

OBJECTS TO BE AIMED AT.

_1st._ To foster self-reliance, and to enable the blind to help
themselves.

_2d._ To eradicate the habit of suspicion by promoting friendly
intercourse between the blind and the sighted.

_3d._ To develop the faculties of the blind in every direction.

_4th._ To improve their physical condition.

_5th._ In industrial training to endeavour to lessen, as far as
possible, the difference in speed in the work between the work of
the blind and that of the sighted, while making it the first object
to secure good and efficient work.

_6th._ To do everything to reduce the dependence of the blind as
far as possible, while endeavouring, by Christian instruction, to
enable them to accept the unavoidable dependence of their condition
in a spirit of humility and