ST. MARY'S ORPHANAGE.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 11809, 11 August 1900, Page 3

ST. MARY'S ORPHANAGE.

CORRESPONDENCE "WITH THE DEPARTMENT.

It will be within the recollection or our readers that some time ago application was made by Bishop Nevill to the Government to have St. Mary's Orphan Home at Woodhaugh " approved " by the Education department as a place to which neglected and destitute.children of the Anglican denomination might be committed by the magistrate, in the same way as various schools in the colorfy belonging to another denomination have been approved. The application was originally made by Bishop Nevill on behalf of the managers of the home on tho 10th May, 1899, when it was stated in the letter requesting the department's " a?}proval " that if further information were required the Bishop would be happy to supply it.

On the 18th May, no reply having been received to the application, Bishop Nevill wrote a second time to -supplement the information he had .previously given by saying that a meeting of clergy had decided that if it should be • found needful to increase the accommodation at St." Mary's Home in consequence of the " approval " asked for funds would- be raised for the purpose.

On the 10th July Bishop Nevill, having still no reply to his application, bxit having heard that it had been- announced in x newspaper that the " approval" had been granted, and having inquired at the police office and searched the Gazette in vain, again wrote to ask if it was true that the home had been approved.

To this the following reply was received: — Department of Education,

Wellington, July 27, 1899.

Eight Reverend Sir, —I have the honour to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 10th inst. enclosing a copy of your letter of- the 10th May, addressed to the Minister of Education, -with refrtence to St. Mary's Orphan Home, Dunedin, and, in reply, to inform you that I can find no record of the Ministerial approval, which you say has been published in .the New Zealand Gazette.

I am, therefore, directed by the Minister of Education to ask you for the source of the information to which you refer, and, further, to point out that children, .although committed to a private institution, still remain under the Minister's, control, and that all proposals for boarding out or for licensing out to friends or to service must be submitted to the Minister, and the licenses, if approved, be signed by him.—l have, etc.,

Geobge Hogben, Secretary for Education. The Right Reverend Bishop Nevill, Dunedin,

On the 10th August Bishop Nevill replied stating that it was in a newspaper that the report had appeared that the home had been " approved," and stating also that a meeting of clergy had asked him respectfully to repeat his request for "approval."

The reply from the department was as follows : —

. Office of Department of Education, Wellington, N.Z., August 23, 1899. Right Reverend Sir,—l have the honour by direction of the Minister of Education to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 10th inst., and, in reply, to inform you that he regrets that he cannot see his way to recognise St. Mary's Orphan ' Home as a place to which children, may bo committed by a magistrate under the Industrial Schools Act; but that he will be quite willing to license to St. Mary's Orphan Home any children committed to an industrial school, or to transfer the guardianship-of) them, should the special circumstances see,m to render such a course advisable—l have, etc.,

Geobge- Hogben, Secretary for Education. The Right Reverend Bishop Nevill, Dunedin.

Relying upon the promise contained in the above letter Mrs Nevill lately applied to the manager of the Caversham Industrial School for the transfer to St. Mary's Home of three indigent Anglican children who had been committed to the former institution. To this application she received the following memorandum, dated the 7th inst.: —

Dear Madam, —As I had no power under the act to make'transfers of inmates withotvt the authority of the Minister, I referred your application to him, and I am directed to' inform you that at present' the Minister is not in a position to authorise the transfer of children to St. Mary's Orphanage.—Yours truly, G. M. BußLiNsbsr, Manager.

_ Apparently therefore the-Minister of Education has receded from the position which was defined by him in his letter of the 23rd August,. 1899. But, if he has done so, it might have fairly been expected that he would have stated what the circumstances are which have induced him to go back upon his promise.