E.—6a

28

during the present session of Parliament as to render it possible to remove these boys to an industrial school the manager of which has been unusually successful in reforming boys of vicious character, I should for several reasons like to see an experiment made by transferring them to his care. The records now kept under section 43 of the Stores Eegulations are, in my opinion, unnecessarily minute, cumbrous, and vexatious. If they can be simplified without disregard to the terms of the regulations much useless work may be prevented. The design of this institution as a Naval Training School makes it necessary to maintain a largo staff of instructors, whether the number of boys be large or small. At present the salaries alone entail an annual charge of about £14> on account of each boy under instruction. At the same time boys are committed much in the same way as they would be if the school were called a reformatory or industrial school, and are not carefully selected with a view to their fitness for the sea; aud, probably, if only the most suitable boys were sent, it would appear that the provision of a special school for training in seamanship was made in advance of the wants of the colony in this respect. None of the boys now in the school are yet capable of receiving instruction in navigation. The Hon. the Minister of Education. Wm. Jas. Habens. 30th May, iBBI.

Authority: Q-eorgk Didsbuby, Government Printer, Wellington.—lBBl.