5

E.—3

The Auckland, Burnham, and Caversham Industrial Schools are under the immediate management of the Education Department; the Thames and the Lyttelton Orphanges are maintained by the Charitable Aid Vote, and are managed by local Boards. The average cost of each child at these five institutions is ascertained by dividing the total cost for the year by the average number of resident children. The sum of one shilling a day is paid for each child at St. Joseph's Orphanage, Wellington, and St. Mary's, Nelson; the charge at Motueka is Bs. a week, except for seven children for whose maintenance 7s. a week is paid. At St. Stephen's, Parnell, and St. Mary's, Ponsonby, other children are maintained besides those placed there by the public authorities. ~Eov each of the latter class the sum of £10 a year is paid from the Charitable Aid Vote; but in addition to this a subsidy at the rate of £1 for every £1 raised by local effort is paid to the governing body of each school. The average number of resident children of both classes at St. Stephen's for the year was 54, of whom only 14 were sent by the public authorities. The corresponding numbers at St. Mary's were 48 and 41 respectively. Although it cannot be exactly shown what the average cost of each Government child was for the year, yet, if the number of both classes of children be taken, the average cost per child, so far as the expenditure of the public money is concerned, would be shown to be £9 4s. 7f d. for St. Stephen's, and £17 18s. 6^d. for St. Mary's. The number of commitments to industrial schools in 1882 was 283, or one in excess of those of the previous year. The following is a classification of the committed children according to the circumstances and character of the parents. The information is obtained from the reports made by the police authorities at the time of commitment:—

Committed Children Classified according to Parents' Circumstances and Character.

The returns show that in a very large number of cases the parents of committed children are to blame. As might be expected, the accounts given of the children not committed by Magistrates are more satisfactory. The classification of the 65 non-committed children is given in the following table : —

Parentage of Non-Committed Children Admitted to Orphanages in 1882.

Mothers d< scribed as Children of Dead. Sick, Lunatic, Disabled, &0. Good Character (or poor). Not Known or not Stated. Of Bad Character. Deserters. Total. 'athers described as — Dead Sick, lunatic, disabled, &c. Of good character (or poor) ... Not known (or not described) Of bad character Deserters ... 5 11 1 19 3 5 4 1 5 9 20 2 12 5 15 9 6 2 21. 3 16 10 29 8 6 11 2 8 4 66 6 68 23 73 49 "6 23 Total 39 24 63 37 89 31 283

Mot] lers describe )d as Children of Slot, Lunatic, Disabled, &c. Not Known or not Stated. Total. Dead. Good Character (or poor). Of Bad Character. 'atkers described as— Dead Sick, lunatic, disabled, &o. Of good character (or poor) ... Wot known (or not described) •*£ Deserters ... ,., Total 9 2 11 2 10 1 ' "l 6 7 " 1 2 37 2 4 7 15 5 "2 "e 16 15 17 10 65