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E.—4

No. S.—SCHOOL FOE THE DEAF, SUMNEE.

EXTRACT PROM REPORT OF THE DIRECTOR. Sumner, 21st May, 1914. At the time of their admission six of the new pupils were aged from 10|- to 12| years. There were no peculiar features about any of these six cases, all of which should have been admitted years ago. The failure on the part of their parents to take earlier advantage of the special facilities provided by the State for the education of their afflicted children is greatly to be regretted, and is difficult to account for. In most cases this must be set down to ignorance and to the extraordinary but very common delusion that the children will in some miraculous way gain their hearing and speech when they grow older. How can one account for these two typical cases—one aged the other aged 12| years when admitted ? Deaf from birth; no attempt to cure deafness, and no education. It is obvious that if these children are to receive a reasonable modicum of education it will be necessary for them to remain at the school until they are practically men and women. When one considers that the hearing child usually remains at school from the age of five to fourteen years, and that when he commences what is usually called his education he has a language at his command by which he is able to express his desires and his thoughts, and by means of which he learns as much outside of school as inside it, one will not grudge a similar number of years to the education of the deaf child, who comes to school without any vocabulary and without any but the most rudimentary ideas, and who, in addition to learning all those things that the law of the land considers necessary for a hearing child to learn at school, has to be instructed word by word, slowly and patiently, in all that larger knowledge that the hearing child acquires without an effort. When the medical inspection of public-school children becomes universal it is to be expected that these cases of delayed admission will no longer occur. In one of the six cases referred to above the parents had spent some years in endeavouring by means of medical treatment, which in the end proved unavailing, to have their son's deafness cured. I am far from suggesting that parents should abstain from invoking the aid of the aural surgeon when there is any possibility of improvement resulting from the treatment; but such treatment could be just as efficiently given at this school as in the home, and without the child's education and mental development suffering. At the same time I think it necessary to warn parents of deaf or partially deaf children of the danger of having the ears of such children treated by any one but a properly qualified aural surgeon. J. E. Stevens, Director.

No. 6—SPECIAL SCHOOL FOR BOYS, OTEKAIKE, OAMARU.

EXTRACT FROM THE REPORT OF THE PRINCIPAL. Otekaike, June, 1914. Admissions and Discharges. Boy.s. Girls. Number of children under the control of the school on Ist January, 1913 72 4 Number of children admitted during the year .. .. .. 1 Number of boys discharged .. .. .. .. .. 2 Number of boys transferred to mental hospital .. .. .. 1 Died 1 Age of boy actually admitted during the year : fifteen years. Number of boys and girls in the school on 31st December, 1913 .. 69 4 Ages of children on the school roll on 31st December, 1913 — From five to ten years .. .. .. .. .. 8 From eleven to sixteen years .. .. .. .. 35 2 From seventeen to twenty-one years .. .. .. 18 Over twenty-one years .. .. .. .. .. 8 2 Total .. .. .. .. ..69 4