E.—6

2

5. For the purpose of giving effect to these regulations, Visiting Committees may be formed in any district not already under the supervision of such a committee, by not less than three ladies agreeing to form such committee and to exercise supervision over such children as may be placed out in their district under these regulations. 6. Every committee so formed shall represent as far as practicable all the denominations established in the district over which they propose to exercise supervision. 7. Before any district is registered in the office of the Inspector of Industrial and Eeformatory Schools as one to which children may be sent under these regulations, the boundaries of such district and the name of the person elected to act as correspondent to the committee shall be furnished in writing to the Inspector of Industrial and Eeformatory Schools ; but such boundaries may be changed (provided that no other district is thereby encroached upon), and such other person may be elected to act as correspondent, as may from time to time be desirable. 8. It shall be optional with Visiting Committees to undertake the supervision of children boarded out and adopted only, or licensed and apprenticed only, or both, at the discretion of the members thereof, provided that every committee shall intimate to the Inspector of Industrial and Eeformatory Schools in writing in which respect they intend to act. 9. No person deriving directly or indirectly any pecuniary or other personal profit from the boarding-out of any child shall be a member of a Visiting Committee. 10. Every committee already constituted or hereafter to be constituted under these regulations shall be held to undertake to see these regulations faithfully administered in their respective districts, and to see that the conditions in the Schedules hereto are complied with by the persons to whom they relate. 11. Every boarded-out child shall be visited at least once in every six weeks at the home of the foster-paront by a member of the committee; and the visitor shall thereupon make a report in writing to the committee, stating the apparent bodily condition and the behaviour of such child, and all reasonable complaints made by or concerning the child against or by the foster-parents. These reports shall be forwarded by the committee quarterly, in forms to be provided for that purpose, to the Inspector of Industrial and Eeformatory Schools. 12. If in the case of any boarded-out child no such report as that specified in the last preceding clause shall be received by the Inspector for the space of four consecutive months, he (the Inspector) may, after giving fourteen days' notice in writing to the committee and the foster-parent with whom such child is placed, remove the child. 13. The committee will exercise general supervision over the children boarded out and the persons they are placed with, advising them as may seem necessary ; and, in cases requiring prompt action— such as the removal of a child from one home to another —they will be authorized to effect such removal, but will require to report the same at once to the Inspector of Industral and Eeformatory Schools for such further action to be taken as may be necessary. 19. All applications for children under these regulations shall be made on the forms provided for that purpose, and shall be accompanied by the certificate of a clergyman resident or having a charge in the district where the applicant resides. Every person taking a child under these regulations shall be bound thereby and by the conditions set forth in such one of the Schedules attached hereto as shall be applicable to the terms —whether boarding-out or license —under which such child is placed under his care. 20. Protestant children shall only be placed under the care of Protestant persons, and Catholic children under that of Catholics. Children of other creeds to be dealt with in a similar manner. 21. The Government reserves the right of removing children whenever it may be deemed necessary to do so.

Schedule No. 1. Conditions relating to the Boarding-out of Children. 1. Applicants (hereinafter called the foster-parents) for children under these conditions must be females of good moral character, good health, and not over fifty-five years of age, and, if married, their husbands must be of the same religious persuasion as themselves. They must not be in receipt of assistance from any benevolent asylum or charitable institution or society, hospital excepted. 2. Applications for children must be sent in to the Ladies' Committee, and must be accompanied by the certificate of a clergymen as to the moral fitness of herself, and, if married, her husband, to be intrusted with the training of children. Applications will only be dealt with when recommended by the Ladies' Committee for the district within which the applicant resides. 3. Every applicant having children within the school-ages specified in the Education Act must show that they are attending school in accordance with the requirements of that Act, or give a satisfactory reason for their being detained therefrom. 4. The family of a foster-parent may not at any time consist of more than six, including the children boarded from the Government, but exclusive of herself, and, if married, her husband. No more than three children —except in the case of families of more than three —may be placed with one foster-parent. 5. No males above the age of twelve years may at any time form portion of a family in which female children over eight years of age are boarded, except in the cases of brothers and sisters; nor may female children under ten years of age be placed in a family in which there are males over seven years of age. 6. The residence of a foster-parent must not be more than two miles from a State school, five miles from the residence of some member of committee, nor ordinarily more than five miles from the residence of a medical practitioner. In cases that the committee consider it very desirable an exception should be made, the foster-parent's residence may be seven miles from that of the medical .officer, provided that the latter expresses in writing his willingness to attend in such case on the terms