E.—l

left. The institution has now been at work so long that older pupils will be leaving every year and making room for new pupils. The advantage secured by the addition made to the staff is at present neutralised by the absence of the senior assistant master, to whom it has been necessary to grant leave of absence for a few months. His return, however, is daily expected, and the school will soon be in a better position than ever to do justice to the pupils. The expenditure for the year was .£3,732 15s. 9d., accounted for as follows : Salaries, £1,221 12s. 9d.; board of pupils, ,£1,666 Bs.; rent, £562 10s.; travelling, £130 3s. 6d.; sundries, £152 Is. 6d. Towards this expense the parents contributed £318 12s. Bd. The annual report of the school will be printed as a parliamentary paper (8.-4). The number of blind children in the colony is, happily, too small to justify the establishment of a separate school. Six blind children are, however, maintained by the Government at a school in Melbourne, and one in Sydney. The payments are made through the Colonial Secretary's Office. Industbial Schools. The number of children and young persons under the control of the industrial schools declined during the year from 1,609 to 1,523, the admissions being 224 and the discharges 310. During the same time the number maintained by the institutions has increased from 1,129 to 1,158, the inmates discharged being in-most cases already at service or licensed to reside with their friends. As is shown in Table T 595 were maintained in the schools (the increase for the year being 12), and 563 boarded out (the increase being 17). Among the cases of discharge are reckoned 11 boys transferred to the Costley Institute in Auckland, 2 girls married, 5 children adopted, and 4 deaths. One little girl of five, who had. been an inmate of S. Joseph's, Wellington, for a year, died of asthmatic croup. Two sisters, ill when they were admitted to S. Mary's, Nelson, in May, died of croup, one in June and the other in August, their ages being 7 and s}. The fourth case was that of a little girl, six years old, who died in October, of effusion of blood on the brain, brought on by whooping-cough, having been admitted to Burnham a month before and boarded out. Of the inmates maintained 12 are above the age of 15 and are supported not by the Government, but by the Eoman Catholic schools in which they reside ; last year the number of such inmates was eight. The five resident inmates at the Thames are maintained by the local authorities. This leaves 1,141 to be maintained by the Government or by the Charitable Aid Boards. In some cases the parents have to pay the whole or part of the cost of maintenance. The contributions received by Government from parents and from Charitable Aid Boards amount to nearly half of the expenditure on the Government schools. The " private " schools receive direct payment from Charitable Aid Boards for some children.

TABLE T.—Children maintained.

In this table the children maintained (1,158) are divided into the two classes of boarded out.and resident, and the numbers in each class are shown for

XVIII

Boarded out. In Residence. Dec, 188G. Incroase. Decrease. Dec, 1887. Deo., 1886. Increase. Decrease. Dec, 1887. rovernment Schools— Auckland—Kohimarama Kent Street Burnham Caversham jocal School— Thames Industrial School 'rivate Schools— S. Mary's, Ponsonby .. S. Joseph's, Wellington S. Mary's, Nelson 76 40 220 208 2 JO 10 3 78 37 230 218 49 5 107 121 11 7 4 5 13 6 56 9 94 126 5 "2 2 51 21 218 4 47 21 237 19 Totals 546 22 563 583 35 23 595