5

E.—3

with the approval of the manager * The following is a summary of the wages account for the Government Industrial Schools for 1883 : — Amount in bank at close of year— £ s. d. £ s. d. Former inmates ... 1,469 19 9 Present inmates 711 9 0 2,181 8 9 Amount, withdrawn in 1883 . 161 8 3 Amount due by employers at close of year .. 160 13 10 Section 53 of "The Industrial Schools Act, 1882," requires that "the Governor, or any Judge or Resident Magistrate, shall, when ordering any child to be sent to a school, state to what religious persuasion, creed, or denomination such child m his opinion belongs, and shall order and direct that such child shall be brought up and educated in that persuasion, creed, or denomination." The following is a summary of the religious denominations of the children admitted to the industrial schools and orphanages in 1883 : —

TABLE U.—Religious Denominations of Children committed or admitted in 1883.

As soon as possible after the Industrial Schools Act came into operation arrangements were made for placing out the younger children with respectable foster-parents, instead of retaining them in the schools as formerly A Lady Official Correspondent and Lady Visitors were appointed m connection with each of the three Government industrial schools at Auckland, Christchurch, and Dunedin respectively It is the duty of the Official Correspondent to select suitable homes for the children, and, m conjunction with the manager of the school, to forward to the Minister a proposal and a statement of particulars in each case. The statement must supply satisfactory information on the following points (1) Concerning the child—its name, age, religion, degree of education, state of health, date and circumstances of admission to the school, (2) concerning the proposed foster-parent —name, age, residence and amount of accommodation, whether married, single, or widow, number and ages of children m family, and other particulars as to the household, church to which family belongs, school that the child will attend, occupation and circumstances of head of family, amount of payment to be made to foster-parent, and name of local visitor On being satisfied as to all the particulars set forth in the proposal, the Minister, by warrant under his hand, authorizes the boardmg-out of the child as recommended. A code of rules relating to the treatment of the children must be signed by the foster-parents. A suitable amount of clothing is supplied from the school when a child is first boarded out, and as the articles so supplied are worn out the foster-parent is under obligation to replace them with others, so that the child shall always have its own clothing to the full extent of the original supply Every child of sufficient age and strength must attend a school, and also the same place of worship as the family in which it is placed. Arrangements have been made whereby medical aid can be obtained m cases of sickness or accident.

* Last year two brothers received £91 is. 8(1. and £29 17s. lOd. respectively, or £130 between them. They were committed in 1872 for seven years, their father being dead and their mother a drunkard. In addition to the amount in the bank, they had accumulated other moneys and a good stock of cattle. Tho stock of the elder brother began in 1874 with three heifers, two of which were presents from his mistress, and a third from a friend of his employer who had become interested in the boy The brothers have jointly taken a farm of two hundred acres in a well-settled district, and, being good practical workmen and of highly respectable character, there is every reason to expect that their undertaking will prove a successful one. Two young women, who had conducted themselves with great propriety for a number of years, recently received their money from the savings-bank on being married . in one case the amount received was £13 145., in the other about £5.

Denomination. Committed. Non-committed. Total. Church of England Roman Catholic Presbyterian Wosleyan Protestant Primitive Methodist Free Methodist Baptist Lutheran Hebrew 140 107 40 19 1 1 1 8 2 1 22 5 5 3 2 162 112 45 22 3 1 1 8 2 1 Total 320 37 357