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the charge of the Education Department, a total of 245 orphan children, including Maoris, have been dealt with up to the 30th June last. In all the cases dealt with the children have either been placed with relatives for payment or have been boarded out in suitable homes in their own. districts, in no case has a, child been admitted and detained at any Government institution or industrial school. It is gratifying to be able to state that the number of private homes available is far* in excess of the number of children who have had to be provided for. The Department has endeavoured as far as possible to place these children in homes and under conditions corresponding as nearly as possible with the conditions under which they would have been reared had their parents survived. In dealing with these orphans it is recognized that commitment under the Industrial Schools Act should, be regarded only as a means whereby the guardianship can. be legally vested in the Department. Such a procedure will be obviated as soon as the legislation already prepared is passed by Parliament. All these children will be visited at regular intervals by responsible lady officers, and will be kept under the care and protection of the Department and provided for until they are capable of earning their own living. Industrial and Special Training for Boys and Girls over Fourteen Years of Age. A great deal has been accomplished in the matter of placing boys and girls as apprentices to suitable trades, and of arranging for children of unusual ability to have the benefit of secondary or technical education. Considering the conditions under which the majority of these children were reared prior to their commitment under tire Industrial Schools Act, it is desirable in certain cases to encourage boys to take up rural occupations, and for girls to be placed in good homes under capable mistresses. At the Training-farm at Weraroa boys are taught milk-testing, buttermaking, cheesemaking, general agricultural work, and market-gardening. For those boys who prefer and show aptitude for a, trade or* mechanical work the rudiments of bootmaking, carpentering, engine-driving, and motor-car driving are taught; and after a few months places are found for such boys with outside firms. Im,proved Methods ami Results in connection with, the Working of Farms attached to the various Schools. The improved methods of working the lands connected with the various schools (Weraroa, Nelson, Burnham, and Otekaike) have accounted for a considerable increase in revenue during the year. For 1917 the total revenue from the sales of produce (milk, butter, cheese, pigs, sheep, vegetables, fruit, &c.) was £2,049, while for 1918 the total was £6,324, showing an increase for the year of £4,275. Training and Care of Elder Girls. Te Oranga Home was established in 1901 mainly for the purpose of providing for the elder girls who were removed from the Burnham Industrial School when the Department decided, to utilize that institution for the admission and training* of boys only. Up to within two years ago there were some 120 girls belonging to the Home. Of these the average number in residence varied from seventy to eighty-five, while the remainder represented the girls placed out, under supervision and subject to certain conditions, in situations or with friends. The number of girls from all parts of New Zealand actually committed through the Courts to Te Oranga Home, or transferred from, gaol under the provisions of section 25 of the Industrial Schools Act, was comparatively small, being only five in 1918. When the revision of the industrial-school system was taken in hand some two years ago the matter of the numerous transfers from other institutions to Te Oranga was fully investigated, with the result that with more careful scrutiny of each case and by the application of different methods of treatment the numbers were reduced to a minimum, The system of placing out the better-behaved girls