CONFIDENTIAL INQUIRIES.

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 566, 22 July 1909, Page 6

CONFIDENTIAL INQUIRIES.

OUR INDUSTRIAL SCHOOL SYSTEM.

( THE HON. G FOVIdS EXPLAINS. (By Telceraph—Special' Correspondent.)

Pahiatua, July 21. The Hon G. Fowlds, Minister for Education, was interviewed to-day m regard to an article in The Dominion doalmg with jlleged espionage by tho pohco upou persons discharged from industrial schools He stated that tho administration of industrial schools had been placed m the hands of the Education Department as far back as 1880 Children, unless pieviously dischaiged by order of tho Governor, wore kept under control of tho industrial school until they reached the age of twenty-one When, persons weio discharged from school, the Department watched their career for a time with the mow of ascertaining if the system was proving satisfactory, and how far the industrial schoo] life had fitted boys'and girls to occupy a place m the social life of the community. It had been customary to obtain reports for a period coyer.ng no longer than five years from the date of discharge with a view of preparing statistics which would disclose the percentage of successes and failures. It was not a fact that inquiries were conducted over a period of ton' or twenty years, neither was it truo that policemen visited the homes of discharged persons to make inquiries In the .event of information not being obtained from other confidential sources, the pohco were entrusted to investigate and report upon the social and material welfare of persons disi6 * d , , Tho P° llco w «3 particularly instructed by ciicular that inquiries and reports must be of a strictly confidential nature, and in no case was inquiry to bo mado from those immediately concerned or tho result of the inquiry communicated to other than tho Department As a matter of fact, in l ..lost cases tho pohco reported on tho cases as tboy came within their personal knowlodgp If nothing was known by tho police against the ox-mmate it was assumed that he was leading a rospectaVo hfo In no caso had complajirt reached the Department of policemen in uniform or otherwise having interviewed or made inquiries from former inmates or their relatives concerning their private affairs or general conduct. If policemen had made inquiries in the manner indicated, which was very unlikely, they had exceeded' their duty, and wpto "guilty of a gross breach of discipline Up till a few years,ago the Department had been able by means of statistics to show that 95 por cent of those who had passed through industrial schoolg had hecomo reputable citizens This fact had been instanced by Homo authorities as evidences of tho success of the New Zealand system. Of late years, chiefly owing to; pressure of Departmental business, the taking of statistics had been dropped. With tho view of obtaining reliable information covering a period of the past twenty-five years the Dopartmont was now renewing inqniruj on the same lines as previously which were absolutely confidential.