E.—la

10

The matter of regulating the attendance of children at picture-theatres and other places of public amusement is also dealt with in the proposed regulations. Provision is also made for the regulation of admission of children to private orphanages and similar institutions, and for the method of conducting these institutions. Another matter which should be dealt with if legislative authority is granted is the handling of children up to the age of sixteen years by departmental officers specially appointed for the purpose. At the present time this work has to be carried out by the police, who already have their hands full in dealing with the criminal adult section of the community. In order to provide better guidance in connection with the employment of children after leaving school it is proposed to establish juvenile-employment bureaux, so as to provide, if possible, that a boy or girl who has the ability will have ample scope for employment of a congenial character, and also that the employer will be able to obtain a boy or girl who is suitable for his particular requirements. It too often happens at the present time that because his parents are poor a boy who is really fit for a useful career has to take the first position that offers the highest immediate wages. In most cases such attractive employment leads to nothing, and in a few years' time the boy finds that he has arrived at the end of a blind alley. As a rule it is impossible on account of financial considerations for him to start life over again in employment that would offer better opportunities, and he joins the ranks of unskilled labourers. 4. The extension of the boarding-out system is in reality an extension of the cottage-home system, which aimed at keeping children as nearly as possible under home conditions while they were resident at an institution. This system was followed out at the Boys' Training-farm, Weraroa, where it has now been rendered unnecessary owing to the reclassification of inmates and the transference of the younger boys —who were formerly in the cottage homes—to the residential school at Nelson. A very large number of former resident inmates of the various institutions have now been successfully boarded out in good homes, where they will receive the individual care of a foster-parent, attend an ordinary public school, and generally grow up in the ordinary environment of childhood. It need hardly be stated that only carefully selected children are thus boarded out. Fuller provision than was previously possible has also been made for the frequent supervision of these foster-homes. 5. Children at Service. —Much individual attention is now given by the Department to the question of wages and conditions of inmates who are placed out in situations from industrial schools and receiving-homes. As far as possible it has been my endeavour .to see that each inmate receives the benefit of the increases in wages that have recently taken place. The results have been very satisfactory, seeing that the wages of the younger boys have been increased on an average by 10s. a week, and those of the older boys by as much as £.1 a week. Similarly, the wages of the younger girls have on an average been increased by ss. a week, and those of the elder girls on an average of 7s. 6d. a week. It must, however, be remembered that a large number of the inmates are abnormal in temperament and characteristics, and cannot expect to receive the maximum wages payable for the services they perform. On the whole the Managers of the schools have in the past done excellent work in connection with the placing of their charges in suitable situations, and with the attention that is now being given to the question of wages the conditions of the boys and girls at service may be regarded as on a very satisfactory basis. It would be impossible even in brief space to summarize the results achieved in the past in the work of fitting industrial-school inmates for filling a useful and honourable place in the community. Hundreds of the boys have learnt useful trades or have taken up farming-work ; some have entered into business ; many of them are married and have houses of their own ; a number to be counted in hundreds have gone to the front, many of whom are N.C.O.s, while a few, of them have commissions. Of the girls, some have entered into business life or domestic service, while a large number of them are married and have homes to be proud of. A large number of the inmates have been restored to their homes after a short period of discipline, and have shown that they have profited by this experience. Many of the inmates correspond for years afterwards with the Managers of the institutions or with the foster-parents who have so carefully trained them and launched them forth in life.