B.— 3b

2

20. When any child has been convicted by two or more Justices of any offence punishable by imprisonment, such order, as mentioned in the preceding section, may be made at any time subsequently to such conviction by any Resident Magistrate upon the recommendation of the convicting Justices, or upon the application of any other respectable person. 24. Any child may be admitted as an inmate of any school upon such terms as to cost of maintenance and education thereof, and otherwise howsoever, as may be agreed upon between the parent of such child and the manager of such school, or between any such manager and any person authorised by the Governor or any local body to act as a relieving officer for the purposes of this Act. 25. The Governor may, if he thinks fit, order that any person under the age of eighteen who has been sentenced to imprisonment shall, either in lieu of or after serving his term of imprisonment or any part thereof, be and he shall thereby become an inmate within the meaning of this Act. Such order shall specify the particular school of which such person shall be deemed to be an inmate.

Return showing the Number of Children in the Industrial Schools on the 31st March, 1899, and the Enactments under which they were admitted.

The department is unable to state what number is to be regarded as criminal. The following extract from the last annual report of the Minister of Education bears upon this question:— Table Uis given in a new form this year; although it cannot be regarded as accurate in every detail, it gives the fullest information available in respect to the character of the parents of children admitted during the year, and in regard also to the reasons for committal. As to the latter heading, it may be noticed that apparently the practice in the various Magistrates' Courts is not quite uniform, cases that appear to be similar being regarded differently in different districts. Again, what is far more important, the clause under which a child is committed to an industrial school is by no means a reliable index of the child's moral character; for instance, in cases of petty theft it is often found that the wrongful act does not necessarily imply a vicious disposition, but is merely a symptom of want of control or of sheer neglect on the part of parents. In this connection there is a somewhat sad significance in the fact that two-thirds (43 out of 64) of the children committed to industrial schools as guilty of punishable offences were described as the children of good (or respectable) parents ; in 30 cases both parents were described as " good " ; in 13 other cases the surviving parent was so described,

School. a c i CO 3 Section 16. .2 s CO o s £ a o I a> zn 3 o c> I? a) ao ■ i-H I - 1 Sun •" O O § aj in p o o 0 Seofcioni si CJ |1 !§ IS J! o 19, 20, and 25. .■si III o O -a a o o a; I 3 Auckland Burnham 5 21 1 11 A 6 3 "s "<2 1 31 1 4 for 1 hour each *2 for 1 month ea. 1 for 7 ds. +1 for 2 yr. 11 KG Caversham 47 1 10 2 13 75 Totals for Government schools St. Mary's, Auckland St. Joseph's, Wellington ... St. Mary's, Nelson 73 19 33 111 13 5 6 31 20 47 25 50 5 5 3 1 4 45 7 1 8 172 84 64 240 1 8 23 2 14 for 1 hour each St. Vincent de Paul's, Dunedin Totals for private schools 11 11 174 1 42 122 13 1 30 14 399 Totals for all schools 247 1 55 142 18 3 1 4 75 571 22 * Of these two boys, one was I ifter sentence. t This boy wai ;rausfi i tram srred iferrei :o the I to tY schoo ie sohi il four I ool twi ;een jnty lays aft line dai ir sen 'e afte itenoe ; the other twenty-o: 3r senteace. ie days