CHILDREN OF THE EMPIRE 'ONLY THE FLOWER OF THE FLOCK' '55 unlike the voluntary agencies, had no need to defend their record, and their figures were less reassuring. Of the 12,000 pauper children who had come out under the auspices of the rescue homes from 1883 until 1893. 2 per cent were shown to have died and i per cent to have been criminal, a much greater percentage than those admitted to by the homes. The Dominion Government did not see any necessity for involving itself further in the juvenile emigration movement; they were paying 32 a head for each child who entered the country, except in the case of workhouse children, but for them they were providing a rudimentary supervisory service. The Ontario legislature, on the other hand, to whose province most of the children had come, felt impelled to take action to reverse the wholesale condemnation of the movement. An act to regulate the Immigration into Ontario of Certain Classes of Children was passed in 1897 which, it was hoped, would mollify public opinion. Under the act the work of each agency was to be inspected four times a year; careful supervision over the children was to be maintained by all the agencies involved until they attained eighteen years of age. It was further provided that all agencies were to maintain proper homes for the reception of the children and for their shelter in time of need. Sections eleven and twelve, put in to refute further allegations that Canada was being used as a dumping ground, stipulated that no child would, in future, be permitted to leave the old country without a certificate from an examiner that the child was the right class to come to Ontario. It was made an offence to bring into Ontario any child who was defective of intellect or who had any physical infirmity or any child of known vicious tendencies or who had been convicted of crime. The action taken by Ontario was soon followed by Manitoba, Quebec and New Brunswick. Finally, the Ontario Act appointed Joseph John Kelso Inspector of Juvenile Immigration Agencies. J.J. Kelso was only thirty-three at the time of his appointment, but he had already shown himself to be a passionate defender of the rights of children. By profession a journalist, he was working on the Globe in Toronto when he became aware of the number of young children involved in prostitution in and around Yonge Street. Whether he was inspired by the success of his fellow journalist, William Stead, in bringing the matter before the public in England, or if this played any part in his decision to make the evils of child prostitution a major crusade, is not known. However, his interest in child welfare was known and when the speaker to the Royal Canadian Institute failed to appear, J.J. Kelso was invited as his replacement. He seized his opportunity and spoke so forcefully on the need to prevent cruelty to children and animals that a group was formed which eventually became the first Children's Aid Society with Kelso as its president. Five years were to elapse between his speech and government action. A bill for the protection of children was passed in 1893. But if he had longer to wait than Stead for legislative action, his involvement with children was to be of far more importance and benefit to children than anything Stead achieved. Kelso was almost immediately invited to become the Superintendent of Neglected and Dependent Children of Ontario. Although neither directly involved with nor responsible for the juvenile emigrants from Britain until the passing of the Ontario Act, his new duties nevertheless made him aware of the problems their arrival had created. His position also provided him with a yardstick by which to judge the performance of the rescue homes' work in Canada. Almost his first action after his appointment as Inspector of Juvenile Immigration Agencies was to write a special report on the immigration of British children. If Doyle can be seen to have been prejudiced against emigration and in favour of workhouse education for the poor-law children from the start, so Kelso seems to have had no thought but that emigration must be beneficial to the majority of the children, and the whole tenor of his report is directed toward the calming of Canadian fears. While Doyle methodically carried out a systematic inspection of the children and methodically noted cases of abuse, the system had grown too large for Kelso to do more than make general statements on the subject while pinning his faith on the efficacy of the new Ontario Act to eliminate 'grave abuses and radical defects in the work of some of the agencies' and to eradicate the shipments of'vicious and sickly children'. Where both Doyle and Kelso were of one mind was in their wholesale condemnation of the work of Maria Rye. Kelso thought it only fair to say 'injustice to the other agencies, that