TE ORANGA HOME.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLIV, Issue 13605, 26 November 1907, Page 5

TE ORANGA HOME.

VISIT OF INSPECTION.

FAVOURABLE IMPRESSION.

[Bt TTttVEORAPH.—PRESS ASSOCIATION.]

CrmiSTCHtmcH, Monday. Mr. C. A. 0. Hardy, member for Rakaiu, who takes a great interest in the Te Oranga Home, paid a visit of inspection to that institution to-day. , Mr Hardy, before leaving Wellington, warmly defended the home from the attacks made against its management, and his visit to-day confirmed him in his Vlief that the hostile criticisms were absolutely undeserved. "The institution," he declared to a Press reporter, "is bright, clean, and tidy The girls look healthy, and are certainly well fed. The order and discipline is perfect, and the loyalty of the staff to the matron is something remarkable."

Mr, Hardy had a talk with the girl whose punishment for a. serious offence led to the agitation against the matron, arid the disciplinary methods employed at the home. " The girl seemed perfectly happy," he said, "and did not. seem in the slightest degree put out over what had taken place. I asked her if she felt she had been harshly dealt with, and she replied that she had been naughty, and had been punished, and she hoped she would be a better girl for the future. The cutting of her hair is anything but a disfigurement."

The work of the girls at the home especially appealed to Mr. Hardy. "One girl I was greatly struck with," he said, " was beekeeper. She seemed a fine, bright girl, with a full knowledge of the work she was doing. Another girl who was looking after the r-ows took the deepest* interest in her charges.

Mr. Hardy is strongly opposed to the holding of any inquiry into the conduct and management of the home. " I went today with an open mind, to see things for myself," he said. Instead of being found fault with the matron is deserving of the deepest sympathy, and the warmest praise. At the present time the institution is overcrowded, and the matron is at her wits' end to know where to put the girls.