15

E.—4

and uncontrollable boys dealt with by the Courts throughout New Zealand are or have been street traders, and fully 70 per cent, of the boys committed to industrial schools for various offences (particularly petty thieving) owe their downfall to the fact that they were, allowed to indulge in street trading without any supervision. I have prepared a series of clauses dealing with the matter on the lines that have been tried with success in other countries. Attendance of Children at Picture-theatres, etc. This matter also requires serious attention. Children of all ages are, allowed to attend entertainments with little or no supervision. The matter has been brought under the notice of the Department times without number, but up to the, present nothing has been done. From our own records it is possible to say that fully two hundred children are dealt with annually by the Courts for offences committed largely as a result of suggestion and ideas picked, up in picture-shows. When it is remembered that the cost to the State of maintaining these children is not less than 15s. a, week per head, and that the liability generally extends over a period of at least three or four years, it will be realized that in the interests of the taxpayer there is need for prompt action. To meet the case suggested legislation has been prepared which though not altogether adequate, would deal with the matter as far as it seems advisable to go at present. There is great need, too, for a stricter censorship of picture-films. My own opinion is that the censorship should be carried out by a committee of not less than three, one id' whom should be an officer of the Department whose duty it is to deal with children generally, and one should be an experienced officer of the. Police Department. Probably the suggested arrangement providing for the censorship of films as (1) suitable for adults only, or (2) for adults and children, and the proposed legislation providing for the exclusion of children under sixteen years of age from sessions where the programmes do not provide exclusively for pictures for adults and children, together with provision for the exclusion after 6 p.m. of children under fourteen years of age unless accompanied by a parent or guardian, will have some effect in checking the present abuses. Care of Destitute Children, and Payments by Hospitals and Charitable Aid Boards. Under the provisions of section 85 of the Hospitals and Charitable Institutions Act, 1909, the Hospital and Charitable Aid Board for the district is liable to the extent of Bs. a, week for the maintenance of any child committed to an industrial school as a, destitute child in terms of section 17 (a,) of the Industrial Schools Act, 1908. Under this provision the Education Department collects about £f3,000 annually from Hospital and Charitable Aid Boards towards the maintenance of such children. When it is remembered that of this amount fully 50 per cent, represents payment already made by the Hospital and Charitable Institutions Department of the Government, and that in making its claim the Education Department spends a great deal of time and much labour, it is questionable whether the amount collected is worth the trouble. Apart from this aspect of the case it is contended that the Government should be primarily responsible for the, maintenance and care of all. permanently destitute children, and it should not be left to a Hospital and Charitable Aid Board to have the authority to deal with such children, except as a. temporal')' expediency. At present some Boards prefer commitment to industrial schools in such cases as the most economical method so far as the Board is concerned of dealing with the children. Other Boards place children out in foster-homes which are not supervised by the Department; other Boards, again, prefer to admit these children to institutions not specially sot apart for children, but for destitute adults and children generally. Inspection of Orphanages and Private Institutions. During the past five or six years the orphanage system for providing for normal destitute or dependent children has grown with great rapidity. Almost every Church has an orphanage in each of the large centres of population (Presbyterian, Anglican, Salvation Army, Methodist, Baptist, and Roman Catholic). At the present time there is provision under the Education Act for the inspection of orphanages and private institutions, but there is no provision for enforcing the carrying-out of any of the recommendations of inspecting officers. 1 think it may bo admitted without reservation that the social-service sections of the Church organizations an- earnest in their desire to provide for the child who either has no parents or whose parents if alive, are unable for various reasons to provide properly for the child. Unfortunately, however, these organizations have started out on a system that has been condemned and abandoned in most enlightened countries as a means of providing permanently for the orphan or the child whose parents are either deserters or unfit characters to be entrusted with the upbringing of children. To put the matter briefly, the State has allowed private enterprise under the guise of benevolence to step in and handle the children of the State under a system that is obsolete, without any Government supervision either as regards the, establishment of institutions, the selection of children who are, admitted to these institutions, or the training and ultimate destiny of the children so dealt with. Ido not think, however, that the Department can afford to ignore the valuable work that has been carried out and is being performed now by these organizations, but there is great need for co-ordination of methods under a central Government authority. For children whose parents are unable for the time being to provide, them with a home, or for the widower who desires to have his children placed temporarily where he, can see them frequently, probably no better institution than the Church orphanage can be found ; but for the child who is permanently bereft of his parents the system of placing in an orphanage is not, in my opinion, the best method of dealing with him. Few of these organizations, if any, possess an adequate system of after-care supervision, so necessary for the child without friends or family ties when he has to face, the, world. It should be the duty of the State to deal with all such children by providing permanent private foster-homes for them. Provision should be made to enable, the Department to control the growth of the orphanage system and at the same time supervise the children admitted to such institutions. I may state that under the Department's policy no State child is detained in an institution unless he is unfit through certain anti-social characteristics to associate with normal children. Family life is the very cornerstone of society, and should therefore be regarded as the most precious heritage of every child.