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for at the Special School at Richmond, and employed in housework and laundrywork, in the workroom sewing, knitting, &<;., and in outside occupations such as gardening and flower-growing. Infant-life Protection. Important changes have been carried out in connection with the supervision of children under the age of six years maintained apart from their parents. This work is now carried out under the supervision of trained nurses who are fully qualified in the care and feeding of infants and young children. It must be remembered that the majority of infants dealt with under this system are illegitimate, and have been neglected to sueh an extent prior to placing in foster-homes that the greatest care is necessary in providing for their welfare. The fact that the death-rate of these children in licensed foster-homes is very much lower than the death-rate among children born in wedlock and cared for by their own parents may be taken as an indication that the system is satisfactorily administered. Education op Deap Children and Children with Speech Defects. During the year the Department has taken in hand the matter of establishing special classes in the various centres for the education of the hard-of-hearing children and for the correction of defective speech among children. Already such a class has been established in Wellington, and as soon as the school for the deaf at Sumner can spare a trained teacher a special class will be established in Auckland. It is necessary, of course, that the school at Sumner should be retained for the preliminary teaching of stone deaf children and young children who, in addition to being deaf, have little or no speech, and incidentally for the training of teachers for the deaf.

No. 2.—REPORT OF THE OFFICER IN CHARGE SPECIAL SCHOOLS BRANCH (INCLUDING CHILD WELFARE). Sie, — Education Department, Wellington, 13tli August, 1920. The work of the Special Schools Branch may be divided into the following sections : — (1.) Maintenance of children committed to the care of the State under the provisions of the Industrial Schools Act. (2.) Supervision of children placed on probation by the Courts. (3.) Supervision of all infants and children under the age of six years maintained apart from their parents for payment. (4.) Education of deaf and feeble-minded children from the ago of six years upwards. The following figures show the numbers of children dealt with under these four sections : — Industrial schools and receiving-homes .. .. .. .. 3,593 Juvenile probation .. . . .. .. . . .. . . 172 Infant-life protection .. .. .. .. .. .. 807 Care of afflicted children — Deaf .. .. . . .. .. .. .. .. 96 Feeble-minded .. .. .. .. .. .. .. 150 Total .. .. .. .. .. .. 4,818 The organization providing for the care of destitute, dependent, and delinquent children and juvenile offenders committed to the care of the Department under the provisions of the Industrial Schools Act has been largely remodelled during the last three years by — (1.) Adopting a system of juvenile probation throughout New Zealand : (2.) Extension of the boarding-out system. (3.) The abandonment of large institutions for other than those cases totally unfit to be at liberty, or oases where long periods of training and discipline are necessary : (4.) The decentralization of the receiving-home system by providing lady Boarding-out Officers and accommodation for children in all the smaller centres of population. Juvenile Peobation System. The extension of the probation system to all the centres in New Zealand has involved the establishment of a boys' 'probation home in each of the four centres. The probation homes provide temporarily for boys not necessarily brought under the operation of the Industrial Schools Act. For

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