E.—l

XIII

Industrial Schools. The number of children admitted to industrial schools during the year was 190 (a smaller number than usual), and the number of inmates discharged was 159, so that the number of young persons under the control of the schools has been increased by 31, the number at the end of the year being 1,554. But the number of children maintained by the institutions has declined from 1,158 at the beginning of the year to 1,106 at the end of the year, the number in the schools having been increased by 10, and the number of boarded-out children diminished by 62. Among the 159 cases of discharge are reckoned 5 boys transferred from Kohimarama to the Costley Institute in Auckland, 4 girls adopted, 1 girl married, 3 inmates who attained the age of twenty-one during the year, and 4 deaths. Two little girls died at St. Mary's, Nelson one (eight years old) of croup, after an illness of three days, and another (five years and nine months) of rheumatic fever and heart disease, after a prolonged illness. A girl of seventeen, belonging to the Caversham School, died at service, of inflammation of the lungs, and an infant of six months, who had been boarded-out, died within two months of her commitment to Caversham. The numbers of inmates maintained by the several institutions at the beginning and end of the year respectively are shown in Table T, and the boarded-out children are distinguished from the resident inmates.

TABLE T.—Children Maintained.

The difference between the number of young persons under the control of the institutions (1,554) and the number of children dependent on the institutions for maintenance (1,106) is thus accounted for : 299 were at service under license, 118 were licensed to reside with friends, 5 were at the Costley Institute on probation, 3 were in hospitals, 2 in lunatic asylums, 1 in an asylum for the blind in Melbourne, lin a Magdalen asylum, and 1 in gaol; and 18 (all boys) were absent without leave—7 having absconded from the schools, 10 having left their places of service without consulting the managers of the schools to which they belong, and 1 having absconded from the Costley Institute, to which he had been sent on probation. The number of girls belonging to the schools was 633 (out of a total of 1,554 "inmates"): 240 residing in the schools, 225 boarded out, 124 at service, 41 with friends, 1 on probation at Costley Institute, 1 in a lunatic asylum, and 1 in a Magdalen asylum. Of 390 children admitted, 84 were simply destitute, 16 vagrant, 22 living in disreputable places, 9 uncontrollable, 56 guilty of punishable offences, and 3 admitted privately at the request of the parents and Charitable Aid Board. With respect to religious denomination, 81 are described as belonging to the Church of England, 66 to the Roman Catholic, 32 to the Presbyterian, 6 to the Methodist, Ito the Baptist, and 4as Protestant. Of the 1,106 inmates dependent for maintenance, 667 are Protestant and 439 Roman Catholic; and, of the remaining 448 inmates, 316 are Protestant and 132 Roman Catholic. Out of 190 cases admitted, it appears, from the facts stated in Table U, that 67 are probably due to misfortune, and 97 to the character of the parents (of both parents in 25 cases, of the fathers in 46, of the mothers in 26), and that in 26 cases there is not sufficient ground for judgment in this respect.

Boarded out. In Residence. Dec, 1887. Increase. Decrease. Dec, 1888. Dec, 1887. Increase. Decrease j Dec, 1888. lovernment Schools —■ Auckland, Kohimarama „ Parnell Burnham Caversham jocal School — Thames Industrial School 'rivate Schools — St. Mary's, Ponsonby .. ■ St. Joseph's, Wellington St. Mary's, Nelson 78 37 230 218 17 3 19 24 61 34 211 194 1 j 56 9 94 126 5 47 21 237 l 10 6 4 9 52 10 104 117 11 i 8 8 5 42 24 245 Totals 563 63 501 595 9M 18 605