E.—3.

TABLE T.—Inmates, 1899 and 1900.

* Including seven children in the receiving-homes. t Including one child in a receiving-home. The changes referred to in last year's report have been advanced a further stage, so that gradually a greater degree of classification of industrial-school inmates is being introduced. It was then stated that all the girls had been removed from residence at Burnham. During the year that school has been established as a reformatory for boys, and accordingly all boarded-out inmates, both boys and girls, and all other girls belonging to it, have now (August, 1901) been taken off its books, most of them being transferred to the books of the Christchurch Eeceiving-home. Te Oranga Home, near Christchurch, has been opened as a reformatory for girls; a new dormitory has been added to it, and a new wing, to accommodate about 24 more girls, is to be erected immediately. The receiving-homes at Christchurch and Wellington have been proclaimed as industrial schools, and the official correspondents at those places have been appointed managers, qualified matrons under their direction having actual charge of the homes. A site with about 400 acres of good land has been secured at Horowhenua, near Levin, for a boys' industrial school, and it is hoped that part of the new premises will be ready for occupation in the beginning of 1902. Most of the industrial school boys proper (i.e., exclusive of those requiring a reformatory treatment) who are in residence are at present at Caversham; when the Horowhenua School is open these inmates will be taken thither. It is intended that the latter school shall consist of a set of cottage-homes, not of one large institution. By the courtesy of the Justice Department a circular has been issued to Stipendiary Magistrates explaining the purposes of the various institutions. Although the leading idea in both classes of institutions (reformatories, and industrial schools proper) is predominantly educative, yet it must be borne in mind that the distinction between them is an important one. Boys and girls who have shown criminal or vicious tendencies are proper inmates of reformatories. Those who are destitute, or whose only faults are due to the want of proper discipline and control, belong naturally to the industrial schools. If they need a measure of firm control, they will be in residence at the schools ; otherwise, they are, as far as possible, boarded out. The disciplinary methods in an industrial school may be very much milder than are necessary in a reformatory. The fact that Magistrates can now, under the Act of last session, commit boys or girls to an industrial school up to the age of sixteen, instead of fifteen as formerly, and that under the Act of 1882 any one under eighteen years of age who has been sentenced to imprisonment may be transferred to an " industrial school " (which would be in such cases a reformatory), will not make the work less arduous. It is almost, if not quite, impossible in a reformatory to do without corporal punishment or the use of cells; but it is hoped by a system of promotions from class to class, and of well-considered money rewards for good conduct, to reduce these objectionable forms of punishment to a minimum. It would be a mistake to abolish prematurely the power to use such punishments;

2

Boardc idoui Kesi [dence. Service, :c. Total Is. 6 G CD rt P5 © m CD sO CD n o P d CD P CJ r o <a CD o P P OS 6 CD p i « 1 I o ■ I 5 o o P OS o-j co CO <D P 6 'Si p o © o CO O © s A p tovernment Schools — Auckland Burnham Caversham Te Oranga Home, Christchurch 'rivate Schools — St. Mary's, Auckland St. Joseph's, Wellington St. Mary's, Nelson St. Vinoent de Paul's, South Dunedin 44 158 206 2 4 12 46 162 194 9 104 87 96 51 229 14 7 4 8 12 16 108* 95 12 100 49 202f 16 36 262 202 29 28 101 3 30 3 1 4 32 292 205 1 27 31 100 8 89 524 495 125 82 336 17 5 38 13 i 94 562 494 13 127 82 307 24 4 2 27 3 2 2 3 6 i 1 '2 5 i 29 2 '5 7 Totals 590 37 29 598 661 42 7 696 1,668 65 417 6 14 409 30 1,703