E.—l

XXIV

Amount in bank at close of year — £ s. d. £ S. d. Former inmates 1,469 19 J Present inmates 7 H 9 ° n , 2,181 o 9 Amount withdrawn in 1883 161 8 3 Amount due by employers at close of year J-oU id w Section 53 of "The Industrial Schools Act, 1882," requires that "the Governor, or any Judge or Kesident 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. lhe 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 m 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 m 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 boarding-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. ' Every foster-child is visited at its home at least once a month by the Lady Visitor of the locality m which it resides A report of each visit is sent by the local visitor to the Official Correspondent, who, after perusal, forwards it to the manager of the school to which the child belongs, for his information and remarks. It is then sent by the manager to the department, where it is perused and filed This monthly report supplies information as to the date of the visit, the healtli and cleanliness of the child, the state of its clothing, and its attendance at school too-ether with the remarks and recommendations of the visitor By means of' these monthly visits and reports security is taken that any failure of duty on the part of the foster-parent, and anything amiss as regards the child, shall be ascertained and rectified without loss of time. With a view, however, to afford still greater security for the proper treatment of all the children, an arrangement has been made whereby all their homes shall be visited by an

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