TE ORANGA HOME.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXX, Issue 6490, 9 April 1908, Page 7

TE ORANGA HOME.

RESULT OF THE INQUIRY

REPORT BY THE COMMISSIONER. COMMENTS ON MANAGEMENT. Mr IX. W. Bishop, S.M., of Christchurch, who was recently deputed to hold an inquiry into tho management of To Oranga Home, has submitted his report to Jiis Excellency the Governor. Mr ' Bishop's inquiry was directed to tho following matters;— (a) Tin! .suitability and efficacy of tho methods adopted in tlio school tor the rdassilic-atioa or the inmates m sections or grades of icdormatory treatment; {]}) Tho general treatment of the inmates. particularly as regards tho methods of punishment, having regard to humanity on the ona hand and tho maintenance of proper discipline on the other; Kj Tho duties of the members of the slalf, and whether such duties, and tho conditions uuuer which they aro [.erformod, entail any undue hardship; (d) The relations between the manager and tho skiff of attendants under her control, and tuc discretion or otherwise'exercised by the manager. . CLASSIFICATION.

Mr Bishop says;—Owing to the lack of sufficient and suitable accommodation at the school, the girls liavo been catircdy dealt with in two classes, the better girls being put in what is known as the tufct class, and the more troubleeomn girls in the secona class. At the present time, of the hily-lour girls in tho echoed, eleven are in tho first-class and tho remainder m lue second-class. Without going into details, tho firstclass girls have very much higher privilc'go.y than those in me second-class, and every inducement is offered to those in tho lower class to qualify, by good conduct, for the higner class. To those acquainted wuh the class of girls who come to this school it will be at once apparent that tne difficulties of management under tho present system aro almost overpowering, and must often strain tho patience and temper of the attendants to breaking-point. Every endeavour is made to keep the two classes separate, but it is practically impossible. To Oranga is tne only female reformatory in tlio Eomtnion. Girls who aro considered by tno Magistrates to require reformatory treatment are committed direct to this school from ail parts of New Zealand. Girls also between sixteen and eighteen years of ago, who cannot b© committed direct to tne sclioal, and who, on account of tho senoußueas of their offtaices, have to fie committed to prison, are removed ,from the gaol to tiie school under special warrant. It follows, of course, that the inmates consist of girls of ad ages, many of them having been, hardened and corrupted by indulgence in ail forms of vice, and who may he termed “moral imbeciles,” and others wno are scarcely normal in intelligence. It will bo seen ac onco that there must bo varying degrees of treatment to satisfactorily with all these girls if there is to' be a genuine eliort to reform them, it is quite hopeless to expect .m u sh to be done if there are only facilities for dulling with them in two classes. The marvel is that tho results are atr good as they are. i understand that plans have been approved for tne erection of considerable additions to the existing bniKUngs, ami mat tlwi wurk will .suorciy be put in hand. This will immensely improve me »>xioio and will enaoi© tne manager to so deal, by way of CtassincatiOa, with certain girls as to no away entirely with a great deal of puiusiimcnt mat she feels mixed upon at present to in met so as to secure proper aiscipano in me school. GKNKKAL TKEUTMENT OF TIU-j INMATES, Tho duties, powers, and responsibilities of the manager in respect to punisnments aro cieany laid down in the xecruiations, under Industrial Schools Acts, which wero approved by Order in Council dated tho Ifith Juno, ICO2. lieguiation 124 provides as follows:—"A register of punishments shall be kept at each school. In. such book a record of all corporal punishments, all confinements in cells, of all continuous restriction of diet, and of any other punishment named in. the regulations shall be mad© on the day on which tho punishment is inflicted; and at tho end of ©very month a copy of tho entries made during the month shall be sent by the manager to tho Secretary for Education.” The manager of To Oranga admits that she has neglected to comply strictly vith this regulation. She has kept a register, which has been produced in evidence, but the entries therein have been made in lots, at long intervals, from scribbled data or from memory, and then, apparently, only when it became necessary to send tho usual copy to the Secretary for Education. I regard this as a somewhat serious breach of duty on the part of the manager, and the more so as, for : the purpose of this inquiry, the register must be held not to be an absolutely reliable record of punishments inflicted. The result is to practically nullify tho | very object that was evidently in view when the regulations on the subject of wero apparently so carefully framed. The object clearly was to obtain the strictest possible control over all tho punishments inflicted in the schools. It is surprising to me, after inspecting tho register, and closely examining it, to find that the officers whose duty it was to periodically inspect this particular school, and presumably also to examine the register, never appeared to notice the fact, that must have teen apparent to the most casual observer, that tho register was not being kept in accordance with tho requirements of regulation 124. There is no medium through which abuses can more readily 1 creep into a school of this sort than through tho infliction of uncontrolled ! punishments, and this evidently was re--1 cognised by tho department when framing the regulations. The more need, therefore, for the strictest compliance therewith. Tho register shows that there are entries of 15S punishments as having teen inflicted on forty-threo girl? during the last two years. These punishments include tho infliction of corporal nunishon forty-eight occasions. The regulations nrorido for tho use of a strap cj a specified size and weight in the infliction of corporal punishment. Not more than twelve strokes are allowed to bo administered at any one time. The ages of tho girls who received the strap varied up to over twenty years. The regulations further provide that except fnr grave < ffences—such, as gross insubordination, repeated attempts to abscond or inciting to abscond. grots© indecency, persistent refusal to obey orders, gross insolence, violence to officers, servants, or inmates, or wilful damage to property—corporal punishment shall not be inflicted upon inmates who are over seventeen years of age.

I cannot briny myself to believe that the infliction of the strap is a ond proper punishment under any circumfor any of these girls; but most certainly do I hold very strongly that the strapping of young women ns carried nut*in tho school is perfectly unjustifiable. To think of a young woman of twenty years of age, laid on a bed. face down, clothed in a nightdress, and receiving twelve strokes of a strop cn her body. is. to mv mind, most repellent, besides being quit-© opposed to all nodern methods of securing discipline. Moreover. I have reason to believe flat such treatment at certain periods might be positively injurious. Tho ©sense made by those in authority "t the school for a somewhat free aseof tho strap is that it is absolutely necessary to deal in this wav xvith the peculiar and depraved class of inmates so as to secure ordinary discipline, and it

in assented that it would be impossible to run tho institution at all if corporal punishment wero abolished. This, to my mind, io a serious admission of weakness, and I decline to believe that it is based 'np ,n any reasonable foimd.iis plainly shown by the records of tho school that tho Education Dcpartmen*:, lor several years part, has discouraged tho us.© of corporal punishment* but at tha same time no absolute embargo has been placed upon it. It seems to me that tho department, while not approving it, has hesitated to abolish it, because of tho fear that the staff could not control tho inmates without its retention, I believe that, apart from tho sentimental aspect of the matter, it answers no good purpose, either co a deterrent iu itscH or by way of example. To balicvo that any good end could bo gained by strapping n young woman within a few mouths of her discharge is, to rny mijid, illogical and absurd. I feel very strongly that corporal punishment should bo entirely abolished at To Oranga; but if the department is not prepared to go to this length, the>i, without doubt, it should only bo used on the authority of tho department and under medical approval. Tho register *how? that punishment with tho strap was inflicted forty-eight times during the last two years. Of those, Mvo inmates were strapped four times throe wore strapped, three times, five were strapped twice, and twonty-ono ■were strapped once. The maximum punishment of twelve strokes was inflicted in fourteen ensue, and tho maximum punishment was inflicted twico on throe inmates.

No ono individual, or set of person©, can with any show of j’cason or justice bo held rceonsible for tho continuance of a practice which I have felt bound to condemn. It has simply been passed on from hand tL hand, and has been regarded as part of the necessary plino of the school. I feel sure that tho practice has only obtained under a deep of obligation and duly. Tho act of infliction has been painful to those t? ! l , ftve inflicted tho punishment. Besides the strap, tho other punishments made use of in the institution are these; —Putting in a cell; putting in tho detention-yard; wearing a pumshramitdress; putting to bed; keeping apart tram other inmate©; hair cut, and the minor punishments, not recorded, of bread and water, or depriving of a certain quantity of food. lucre is nothing in the coll-punish-mont that calls fop any special remark. In© cell is merely a small room, well lined, warm, and fairly lighted, and with fixed i&aafcs. X think, however, rhat there is clear evidence that the cell-punishment lias not been strictly supervised, and unr f lni P might be seriously abused. I nav© very grave doubts whether ths regulations in this connection have been strictly complied with, i Considerable attention has been directed to the case of two girls whose hair was cut, in addition to other punishments. In the register tho offence of on© as described as, "Absconding, and the ringleader of the absconders.” For niyself, I do not profess to approve of this form of treatment, and 1 believe that tho public sentiment is opposed to it; but I have perused all the papers in connection with the matter, and it is quite clear that the authority was only given after a careful and judicial review of tho whole of the circumstances of the c ?-p. and under a sense of deep responsibility as to the best course to pursue m most difficult circumstances. There can be no doubt that the main object in approving the punishment was to prevent these two girls from reverting 1 -to a hfo of ©in. There is equally no doubt that it had this effect, for the girls are still in the Home, and at present giving no trouble. It will be, no doubt, thought by many people that this result justifies the unusual course adopted. I think that I ought to refer to one form of punishment that largely obtains at To Oranga and that calls for some remark, and that is tho unrestricted use of what Ls known as the "punishment dress. Thus dress,l may state, is an extraordinary garment of many and vari-ous-coloured hues, most striking in appearance, and eminently unattractive. I understand that several of these garments are in use in the institution, under authority of regulation 123, which I have already quoted. In no single instance could I find any record of the Minister having accorded, his sanction to the use of these peculiar garments. When I found that they were somewhat extensively used, and no apparent record kept of their use, I seriously questioned the right of the manager* to act as she was doing. It seems to me that the department has no right to go outside the regulations, and certainly not to loosely set aside the prerogative of the Minister, When drawing the regulations it was evidently thought that this form of punishment was sufficiently important to justify it being specially safeguapded. I recommend that tho authority I have referred to bo cancelled. .Regulation' 109 reads: "No stroke on the head or neck can in any case be tolerated under any name whatever, and shaking, pushing, and all similar forms of punishment are prohibited.” It is much fo bo regretted that, iu the face of this very precise and stringent regulation, tho manager has had to admit that on occasions she has boxed the ears of some of the inmates, and has slapped them, and so on.

The fact has been elicited during the progress of the inquiry that tho manager makes a physical examination of a highly private patur© of all girls when first committed to the Home, and also of those who return after absence by absconding. Ido not at all question the necessity for such an examination—far from it; but I do most certainly hold that it should be made only by the medical officer. This would remove all possible objections, such as have been taken, to the existing practice, and at the same time secure a much greater degree of certainty as to tho examination.

A good deal has been said about the outside work that tho girls are called upo.i to do, in the form of cutting clown trees, chopping and splitting firewood, and grubbing lupins. I suppose it will be conceded that vigorous physical exercise is an absolute necessity for these girls. The evidence clearly shows that the work they do is in no way hard, and the girls enjoy it, and regard it in a great measure as recreation.

A good deal of evidence was given about the treatment by the manager of a girl who had been for some time in another institution, where she had done exceedingly well, and whom a lady in Christchurch was desirous of taking into her service. The dispute over the girl was a most unfortunate one, and, in my opinion, quite unnecessary. I cannot think that the manager of the school exorcised a very wise discretion in dealing with the case. I desire also to etato that there is absolutely no fault whatever to find with tho food supplied for the use of the inmates. It is good, wholesome, and ample in quantity. The healthy and robust appearance of the girls generally is conclusive proof that they thrive well upon the food supplied. A dietary scale is in use, and to my’ mind it is thoroughly liberal and satisfactory. THE STAFF.

The staff at its full complement consists of a sub-matron, a r.on-resident school teacher, fire attendants, and a gardener. One attendant has clerical duties to perform in addition to those of relieving-attcndant. So far as I am able to judge, the duties are fairly well distributed, and certainly do not entai' any undue hardship. The Lours worked seem to me to bo somewhat long, but each attendant, when giving evidence, although pointedly invited to speak fully and freely on tho subject, expressed herself as perfectly content with all the conditions of her employment, I am bound, therefore, to assume that everything is satisfactory ana cnfSciont for the purpose. RELATIONS BETWEEN MANAGER AND STAFF. Judging by the evidence given by all the resident members of the ataff, thrir relations with the manager are of the most cordial nature. Not a single dis- ! cordant noto was sounded. The school- I

teacher, who only visits at certain stated : hours, complained somewhat of whateho descrioed as a lack of sympathy wirn the work ox the school on the p*.»rfc of the- manager, and she thought that, given belter conditions, she would show b?tcer result?. 1 think that the true explanation of anv little friction that may arise from time to time is, as suggested by Mrs Bnmting, duo to the ftict that tho t-acher looks to the syllabus and nothing else, and that her enthusiasm in her work causes her to regard the school results as of the first importance. lam directed report my opinion as to the extent tfi which the school U;s been successful in improving the moral and social conditions of tho inmates, and in geucird fulfilling tho purpose of a reformatory. To Oranga was opened ae a fonAile reformatory iu 1900. Since then cixty-two girls have passed out of control. At the termination of the period cf detention thirty-two of these wero of good character, thirteen might be described as fair, eight were bad, three were missing, throe were mental defectives, and three had died. I agree with tho opinion of the department thlit a complete success shduid not be• claimed until Mm inmate has been beyond the control of the cchool for at least three years. Applying this test, there are only thirty- \ nine girls who have been beyond control for ihro> years, and of these nineteen are known to be of good character, two are unknown, two are weak-minded, two are in a private institution, and one has died.

, In considering these figures it must not; bo forgot.cn that several of them girls were only a very short time in Te 6rang*j, having been culled o© incorriMblcs from other schools, and eentuere after tho school opened. Many were approaching twenty-one when they entered. This being so, X consider the results distinctly good. Very few of the general public can rcaay be awarp of the terrible material upon which the nAmagement has to work. Many of the girls are brought direct from tho brolhcls, from Chinese dens, fyom tlio open streets, from tho company of dkcolutc parent-?. Many of them come in with irreparable marks of disease, of sin. and of degradation. None of them have ever had \x chance to live straightly and decently. I could give instances of youthful depravity that would be thought impopsib.e. These girls, who have never been under control or discipline, who are of an ago to find a fatal ‘attraction in various forms of sin, and who absolpiely resent any attempt to interfere with their freedom, have to be sorted .out, broken in, and gradually • humanised. Can we wonder at the failures in tho fao;; of such enormous difficulties? But I do not require statistics to convince mo that the Homo is doing good work. Many of these «drls have passed through my hands when at iheir very worst. I htive spoken with them, I have studied them, I have tried to reason with them, i bug them again after eotne months of treatment at Te Oranga, and I cbn scarcely believe them, to be the same girls. They are gentle in their manners, they have a good address, they show undoubted evidence of refinement; in short, they hare become humanised. In addition to ray own powers of observation, I havo had tho opportunity of reading a very large number of letters written to the manager at different *timco by service girls and by ex-lnmares. These letters have a genuine ring of spontaneity aoout them. They are remarkable lor th-oar expressions of gratitude to the institution, and of deep attachment to the manager.’ Invariably they show a fixed cLpiro to lead a good Void pure life, and to avoid the. paths of temptation which are always open tier" them in the world, and which eeem so alluring. Yes, in spito of many shortcomings, many drawbacks, many weaknesses, one cannot but toci grateful to tho management for much escollent work that is being done. IftjjETEEMIiNATE ijJ~.j.E-NTION.

I can imagine no greatßr mpcntive to reform, in the case of most of, tnefe Vv-un- people, than the fear of indeterminate ‘ detention. I bsliove it would do more to he.p forward tho work oi the reformatories than anything-else. Tm necosaiiy for punishments would bo gradually reduced, Und the percentage of failures would be gradually brought down to a minimum. I earnestly recommend the whole question to the serious consideration of the Gorernmcnt.

V ' —' ’ HON. G. FOWLDS’S OPINIONS

"SURPRISED AND PLEASED." THE DEPARTMENT’S INTENTIONS. PRESS ASSOCIATION. DUNEDIN, April 8. The Mon. G. Powlds, iu au interview respecting tho Gommissioner’is xpport, said that he was eurprisod and pleased to find, after such a searching investigation, that to little had been discovered calling for adverse comment. The most vital point in the finding was the necessity for providing more efficient means of classification. As the Commissioner forcibly remarked: —"The marvel is that tho results are a© good as they are. THE GLASSIFICATION QUESTION. A commission was not necessary to. show him (Mr Fowlds) tho necessity for making provision for better classification of the girls committed to Te Oranga, and on tn© occasion of his first visit to tho institution twelve months ogp ho saw how desirable it was to have an additional building for the purpose. He at once ordered the preparation of plans and specifications, but the ffrsf plans submitted involved an expenditure ol over J 37000, which was a good deal moio thau he could find out of last year's building vote. He had, therefore, to arrange for modified plans. These were practically ready when tho outcry against the institution took place. The question of making suitable provision for classification, of inmates would now be submitted to his colleagues without delay. METHODS OF PUNISHMENT, Regarding corporal punishment and cutting the hair off two girls, Mr Fowkls pointed out that ho had, in an interview in Auckland, stated: —"Neither of these two modes-of punishment null bo required when wo secure more effect 7 ’*.-© classification by means of a separate third-class building.” He-was in this running counter to the opinion of these who havo had some extensive experience in dealing with tho class of girls committed to Te Oranga and similar institutions. The department, as well as himself, had always been opposed to corporal punishment, but tho unanimous opinion of tho©o responsible for tho cctnal management of. the institutions was that the use of the strap and hair-cut-ting were absolutely necessary in extreme cases. Ho had been informed that in similar institutions in America corporal punishment had been abandoned, but after a lapse of five years had to bo resorted to again os tho only corrective means in extreme cases.

MATTERS REQUIRING ATTENTION. The Commissioner had very properly commended the {suggestions as to classification by Hr Small,** Christchurch, city missionor. He had frequently discussed tho matter with him, and the Small system of classification adopted by the department was in practical accord with Mr Smail'© evidence. There would be one department for reception or observation classes, from which those who respond to tho sympathetic, treatment they receive will be moved into the first-class, and what would be known as third-class would be incorrigible*. The Commissioner had very properly condemned certain minor matters connected with the internal management of the Home, which would receive immediate attention. UNWARRANTED COMPLAINTS.

The Commissioner's report proved ccnclnsivoly thnt com 'nts rcg.irdiug the food and physical cierciises of ihe- girls were absolutely unwarranted. 1+ was rery gratifying that Mr Bishop should have personal knowledge ns a Stipe7idiary Magistrate o* ne girls committed and was able to he considered the results distinctly truod. Mr Fowlds -.aid in conclusion; —"The management that can produce such results from the materials described by the Commissioner must stand approved in the judgment of all right-minded, unbiassed people/'