E.—4

Table 15. —Return of Inmates at 31st March, 1928, and Annual Expenditure.

Table 16.—Particulars of Expenditure for the Year 1927-28.

The net expenditure for the year 1926-27 was £11,323 16s. 2d. ; the recoveries for the year compared with the previous year, show an increase of £546 lis. Education of Deaf Children. Under the provisions of the Education Act the education of deaf children between the ages of six and twenty-one years is compulsory. For such children who are normal mentally provision is made at the residential school for the deaf at Sumner, which is really a boarding-school. Practically the same vacations are observed as in public schools, and during the summer vacations the pupils return to their homes and the institution is closed. As soon as a pupil has completed his education or the equivalent to the standard of education in an ordinary primary school he is returned to his home and the control of the school over him ceases. In this respect the school at Sumner differs from the residential institutions under the Child Welfare system—there is no adult section at Sumner, and there is no need for a system of after-care for those pupils who pass through the school. In the main centres special classes have been established under expert teachers for the training of partially deaf children and children with defective speech, and for the adult deaf who desire to learn lip-reading. The following is an extract from the annual report of the Director of the School :— " The work of the school was maintained to the standard that one might reasonably expect where children are removed from school about the age of sixteen years. Considering that a deaf child .requires four years' schooling to be about equal in intellectual equipment and development to a, hearing child of six year's, the standard of work attained here may be said to be satisfactory. The aim so far as a curriculum is concerned is to equip the pupils with a general, education as similar as possible to that given in a public school. It is to be remembered, however, that the deep, far-reaching interaction between thought and language gives the hearing child an enormous advantage over the deaf who come to school with no language. From the fact that only two ex-pupils during the last five years have appealed to mo to assist them in finding employment it would appear that the linos on which the pupils' education is conducted, are such as equip these young people to obtain employment on leaving school. It should be realized by parents that about ten years' attendance here is necessary to give an average deaf child a sound general education. " It is to be regretted that nine children on the roll last December were detained at their homes for several weeks after the school reopened in February last. Three of these have not yet returned. It should be clearly understood by parents that deaf children require every educational advantage that it

3—E. 4.

17

:n residence Dn vacation it service (under C.W.O.) Ln mental hospital Hissing 85 3 Richmond. (Girls.) Otekaike. m ± 1 ,tj , total. (Boys.) 185 270 3 6 5 5 1 I 3 3 197 285 Totals 88

Item. Otekaike. Richmond. Item. Total. £ s, d. £ s. (1. Salaries.. .. '.. .. .. 5,370 2 10 1,819 10 4 Advertising .. ... .. .. 2 9 0 15 0 Maintenance of buildings .. . . .. 357 13 1 98 17 4 Maintenance of institutions .. .. 4,757 4 5 1,391 9 9 Contingencies .. . . .. .. 110 £ s. 1,819 ,10 1 5 98 17 1,391 9 d. 4 0 4 9 £ s. 7,189 13 3 II 456 .1.0 6,148 14 1 1 d. 2 0 5 2 0 10,488 .10 4 3,311 2 5 13,799 1-2 259 9 9 6 Travelling-expenses Less recoveries (parental contributions and revenue from farms, sale of articles manufactured, &c.) Net cost to Department 14,059 3,509 2 3 9 11 j £10,549 1.2 4