B.—l

1901) been taken off its books, most of them being transferred to the books of the Christchurch Receiving-home. Te Oranga Home, near Christchurch, has been opened as a reformatory for girls; a new dormitory has been added to it, and a new wing, to accommodate about 24 more girls, is to be erected immediately. The receiving-homes at Christchurch and Wellington have been proclaimed as industrial schools, and the official correspondents at those places have been appointed managers, qualified matrons under their direction having actual charge of the homes. A site with about 400 acres of good land has been secured at Horowhenua, near Levin, for a boys' industrial school, and it is hoped that part of the new premises will be ready for occupation in the beginning of 1902. Most of the industrial school boys proper (i.e., exclusive of those requiring a reformatory treatment) who are in residence are at present at Caversham; when the Horowhenua School is open these inmates will be taken thither. It is intended that the latter school shall consist of a set of cottage-homes, not of one large institution. By the courtesy of the Justice Department a circular has been issued to Stipendiary Magistrates explaining the purposes of the various institutions. Although the leading idea in both classes of institutions (reformatories, and industrial schools proper) is predominantly educative, yet it must be borne in mind that the distinction between them is an important one. Boys and girls who have shown criminal or vicious tendencies are proper inmates of reformatories. Those who are destitute, or whose only faults are due to the want of proper discipline and control, belong naturally to the industrial schools. If they need a measure of firm control, they will be in residence at the schools; otherwise, they are, as far as possible, boarded out. The disciplinary methods in an industrial school may be very much milder than are necessary in a reformatory. The fact that Magistrates can now, under the Act of last session, commit boys or girls to an industrial school up to the age of sixteen, instead of fifteen as formerly, and that under the Act of 1882 any one under eighteen years of age who has been sentenced to imprisonment may be transferred to an " industrial school " (which would be in such cases a reformatory), will not make the work less arduous. It is almost, if not quite, impossible in a reformatory to do without corporal punishment or the use of cells; but it is hoped by a system of promotions from class to class, and of well-considered money rewards for good conduct, to reduce these objectionable forms of punishment to a minimum. It would be a mistake to abolish prematurely the power to use such punishments; for instance, in America, where corporal punishment was abolished, it has been found desirable to reintroduce it. Education, healthy work, and systematic industrial teaching will be the chief means of reclaiming those who have unfortunately started on a wrong path in life. That such means have been successful in the past is shown by the results of a careful inquiry that has been made into the subsequent history of inmates of our industrial schools from the passing of the Act of 1882 ; out of over 1,100 that have passed out of the control of the schools, and about whom the Department has authentic information, 90 per cent, at least have turned out well. The success that has attended industrial school work in New Zealand, despite imperfections and drawbacks that the Department is now endeavouring to remove, has not escaped the notice of authorities outside the colony. For instance, one of the most exhaustive reviews of such work throughout the world is contained in a paper read before the Royal Statistical Societjr of Great Britain in March, 1900, " The Treatment of Juvenile Offenders," by Miss Rosa M. Barrett. The writer warmly praises many features of the New Zealand system, and in the concluding summary of her essay expresses the opinion that " the best examples of preventive work" (i.e., work intended to prevent crime) " are afforded in the countries of New Zealand, Ontario (Canada), and in the States of Massachusetts, Michigan, and Minnesota." The necessity for further progress must not, however, be lost sight of; accordingly, it is proposed to give to Boards of Education the power to establish separate truant schools, and thereby to check at its outset the nomadic habit that so often leads to juvenile delinquency. It is hoped also that the introduction

XXI