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escaped notice, and are now too old to live among children or to receive instruction with them. Where it is still possible to do something to relieve their affliction, and to educate them, these cases may be admitted; but such individuals also should be boarded out, and should be taught in special classes. It does not, however, appear fair that the cost of maintenance, apart from that of instruction, should be borne by the Education Department. If their friends cannot afford to maintain them, their maintenance at the institution is really a relief to the rates, and in cases where, say, the inmate is over twenty-one the cost should presumably be borne by the Charitable Aid Boards. Three boys and 3 girls left the school during the year (4 after the close of the school year), and 6 boys and 4 girls were admitted. At the end of the year the number in residence was 28 boys and 21 girls, 3 boys and 1 girl more than at the end of 1900. The expenditure on the institution for the year 1901 was, — Salaries of Director and teachers, £1,384 14s. 3d. ; steward, matron, and servants, ,£529 os. 10d. ; rent, £178 6s. 3d.; housekeeping, £681 2s lid.; travellingexpenses, £116 10s. 3d.; school material, £51 4s. Id.; repairs and works, £42 4s. 9d.; clothing, £13 Bs. 3d. ; medical attendance and medicine, £31 2s. 9d. ; water-supply, £30 Bs.; sanitation, £20 Is.; boarding-out of pupils, £104 3s. Bd. ; for the preparation of plans of the new buildings, £61 2s. Bd. ; extension of water-service, £79 Bs. 7d.; sundries, £50 17s. Id. : total expenditure, £3,267 2s. Bd. Deducting recoveries, £170 Is. 9d. (parents' contributions), the net expenditure was £3,097 os. lid. The amount expended in 1900, was £5,243 16s. 9d., of which £2,233 16s. 9d. was paid to complete the purchase of the new site. Two deaf-mute children who, from having received partial training on the manual or sign system, were ineligible for admission to our own institution were maintained in the Victorian School for the Deaf, at a cost of £30 18s. 6d.; and one was under a private teacher in Auckland, to whom a fee of £26 was paid by the Department. Institute for the Blind. The Jubilee Institute for the Blind, at Auckland, is a private institution, and not in any way under Government control. Being, however, a " separate institution" under the Hospitals and Charitable Aid Act, it receives a subsidy at the rate of 245. in the pound upon the voluntary contributions raised by the Trustees, and, in addition, payment is made to it by the Education Department on account of pupils for whose tuition the Department is responsible. The Trustees have also received at various times grants in aid of buildings. Representations having been made to the Government as to the existence of alleged abuses in the management of the institution and the treatment of inmates, a Commission of Inquiry was set up, Mr. S. Brabant, S.M., being the Commissioner. The charges of ill-treatment of inmates seem generally not to have been sustained; but the Commissioner in his report called attention to defects in the management that in his judgment needed amendment. The chief points in the report may be summarised as follows: The principal, who is a blind man of some ability, possesses tastes that, however harmless they may be in themselves, do not seem to accord well with his position, and to some extent may interfere with his proper performance of his duties and with the comfort of the inmates. The practice of making the principal an allowance for the maintenance of inmates was condemned, as it might lead to the suspicion, even without any foundation in fact, that he stinted the inmates in food and comforts for the sake of increasing his own private profit. The dining-room required renovation and better furniture ; the workshop should lie enlarged, and a separate room should be provided for machinery, which should be fenced off; the men should have a sitting-room provided for them ; men suffering from temporary indisposition required special care ; it was desirable that trees should be planted in the grounds to afford shade for the inmates; the sanitary arrangements should be improved; and, in order that these and other matters should be thoroughly attended to, and a proper degree of efficiency maintained, the Commissioner strongly

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