NEW ZEALAND AS A PARENT.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XVI, Issue XIII, 28 March 1896, Page 337

NEW ZEALAND AS A PARENT.

THE INDUSTRIAL SCHOOL SYSTEM AND BURNHAM SCHOOL, CHRISTCHURCH. -IE 'T'rAV ZEALANDshows sometbingof its civilization XI by the care and consideration it extends to the children of the state. In many old and professedly civilized countries more attention is paid to levying taxes and training soldiers than to the claims of parentless boys and girls. New Zealand recognises that young human life is of vast importance, and she takes care of it accordingly. By virtue of an Act of Parliament the Government of New Zealand can obtain complete control and act in every way as the natural parent of ‘ any child found wandering about or frequenting any street, thoroughfare, or any public place, or sleeping in the open air, not having any house or settled abode ; any child residing in any brothel, or dwelling with any prostitute, habitual drunkard, or person committed of vagrancy.’ It isunder this Act that the Government becomes the parent. It feeds and clothes the children, gives then lodgings, educates them, trains them, or sees that they are trained and all this is done under what is called ‘ The Industrial School System.’ There are four industrial schools maintained by the Government. One of the largest and most important of the four is Burnham. This institution is situated about 18 miles south of Christchurch on the great Canterbury Plain. The schools and houses are surrounded by a farm of i,ooo acres, which is worked by the boys under skilled management. Besides the farm there is a big vegetable garden and a well-kept orchard, so the boys are able not only to get a good training in agriculture, horticulture, and gardening but they are able to supply most of the food stuff required by themselves and their sister schoolfellows.

When I visited Burnham a few weeks ago Mr T. Palethorpe, the director of the institution, informed me that t here were 574 children on the books— 352 boysand 222 girls. There were in the school itself 84 boys and 35 girls; out at service, 123 boys and 65 girls; boarded out under icence, 89 boys and 77 girls ; with friends under licence.

46 boys and 36 girls. There were 10 missing or absconded, and 14, chiefly girls, who were under charge of such institutions as St. Mary’s and Mount Magdala, where strict religious training was considered necessary for their welfare.

The figures I have given require explanation. The Burnham School is really the centre of a system with Mr Palethorpe as its legal head. I stated that there were 166 children boarded out This means that these children, instead of being kept at the school, are placed

with foster parents. Most of them are quite young, some being infants. The foster parents are paid from 6s to 8s per week for the maintainence of their charges, and in some cases, where children require special care, even 10s per week is paid, and every child on entering its foster home is supplied with a stock of clothing by the school authorities. These boarded-out children, if of sufficient age, must attend the State School, and local visitors are appointed to see that this is done, and also to see that the children are properly fed and clothed. These visitors sjpply the authorities

with a monthly report on the children in their district, so that their condition is well known at the school.

The ISB mentioned as being at service have been placed in situations, the girls as domestic servants, the boys on farms or in workshops. This class are the young people who have gone through a course of training and education at the school, and who have proved themselves trustworthy Their employers bind themselves to provide sufficient meat, clothes, lodging, and all other necessaries, and generally to pay a fixed wage. The wages, according to law. belong to the State, which has acted as their legal parent, but as a matter of fact they are generally paid to the worker, and he or she is supposed to remit any savings to the master ot the school, who banks the money to their credit. I saw the account sheet of the money received by the director from those out at service, and knowing the usual extravagance of colonial youth. I was surprised to find that some Burnham boys and girls had sums to their credit at the P.O. Savings Bank varying from /fts and /20 to /40 and /.50. This money accumulatesat interest until its owner reaches the age of 21,

when the lump sum is paid over to them. In cases of bad behaviour the authorities can retain all or part of this money to recoup them for the expense of rearing and educating the worker, but there are only about two cases recorded where the money has been kept back. The total number now in the bank to the credit of Burnham inmates is Z'3,933 13s 4d.

‘ With friends under licence ’ describes those children who, after having been placed at the school for some fault, or because of their refractoriness, are again sent to their natural guardians, but the school maintains its legal authority over them, and can recall them if they misbehave themselves.

The few ‘ missing or absconded ’ are those who have found the restraint of systematic training too much for them, and have simply bolted into the country, where they are no doubt to be found on some farm, or in some racing stable—a situation some young colonials love above all things. The fourteen described as failures are girls who have been taken from brothels, and they for obvious reasons are placed in institutions where women teachers of seme religious order take charge of them. The school is well situated. It is miles away from any town, out on the open breezy plain. The group of plainlooking buildings is sheltered by plantations of young trees, but away from the trees there is an unbroken stretch of grass country reaching westward to the majestic Southern Alps and eastward to the Southern Alps. Thoughtless magistrates are apt to threaten children with Burnham as if it were a torture chamber, and one reads of committals to Burnham as a punishment of youthful crimes. This gives a mistaken idea of the place. It is by no means a punishment to children rescued from poverty and uncleanness, from brutal parents or criminal guardians, to have pure country air, abundant food, regular exercise, and useful training. Life at Burnham is very much like life at some big training college. Boysand girls rise at 6 a.m., bath, and begin certain duties. The elder boys go to fetch up the cows to feed and milk them, and to feed and groom the horses. The elder girls begin household work and assist to prepare breakfast. Breakfast at 7.30 a m., a good, honest sort of meal, with plenty of milk and bread. At 8 o'clock regular work commences. The boys go out on the farm ‘ to plough and to sow. and to reap and to mow ’ as the song says, or to all manner of agricultural work under the direction of Mr O. Stace. the foreman. The boys and one paid director do all the work on the 1,000 acres of land. A flock of 450 sheep is kept, and over too acres’ put into crop yearly. The soil is mostly of poor character, so there is no intense farming. The boys like farm work, especially the handling of horses, and they generally imbibe a practical knowledge of agriculture. One old Burnham boy has now a farm of his own, and has recently engaged a Burnham boy to work for him.

Some of the youngsters go into the orchard or vegetable garden to work under the superintendence of Mr Alex Calder. They get a useful training here, for nearly every kind of vegetable and fruit tree is grown. A system of irrigation is carried on, and the raising of nurserv stock tried.

The younger children attend school every day. The elder children attend for a short time between their outdoor tasks, so that they neither miss their education nor have too long a spell at physical labour. Just the same education is given as in the primary State schools. Mr and Mrs Wicks are in charge of the schools, and the Government Inspector in his recent report says; ‘The results of the examination are on the whole very creditable to the diligence and skill of the teachers. Standard IV. is particularly strong in reading, drawing, and composition. Spelling, geography, and grammar possess features more or less worthy of commendation. The report all through is favourable with the exception of oral answering in arithmetic and the accuracy and finish of mechnical drawing. I saw the children at their desks. Both boys and girls seemed healthy and clean, and if anything more neatly dressed than the average child in our country schools. Some of the girls were brightlooking, pretty creatures, and I think all through the classes the girls seemed superior to the boys in general appearance. While the elder boys are working out on the farm or in the orchard and garden, the elder girls are at work in laundry, sewing-room, and kitchen. In the kitchen Miss Cunningham trains some of them in cookery, and in the laundry Miss Davis is in full charge. In the sewing-room Miss Bowles as mistress and Miss Gilks as machinist, train the girls in the useful art of making and mending. The clothing for the 574 boys and girls is made in the school, so both teachers and girls have plentv of work to do.

In the laundry and kitchen there is every appliance for convenience and economy, and girls going thence to service in small houses may find it awkward to adapt themselves to circumstances. Burnham-trained girls would, I think, be more suitable for service in big establishments. They would give more satisfaction, and

the more regular work would be better for them than the uneven discipline of some young and perhaps inexperienced housewife.

The dormitories are roomy, bright places, well ventilated, and better fitted up than those of many boarding schools. The girls’ dormitory, is especially nice with its gay coverlets and its flowers. There were evidences of refinement and artistic taste shown in a simple manner all through the girls quarters, and these evidences are only part of the influence Mrs Palethorpe, the matron, is exerting among the girls. Mrs Palethorpe has the sensible and broad-minded idea that such girls as come to Burnham will develop a spirit 'of selfrespect more quickly under neat and comfortable surroundings than under the iron system of some institutions. She encourages the spirit of self-respect by giving the girls a pride in themselves and their belongings, by giving them neat and suitable dresses and attractive rooms, and by developing their individuality, thus helping to build up that subtle feminine dignity which we know as womanly refinement.

I am sure there are few girls among the poorer classes who have such pleasant quarters and such advantages of training as the Burnham girls, and if it were not for the foolish fear of antecedents, girls might be as proud of saying they were trained at Burnham as at some College. .

If Mrs Palethorpe is doing good work in her departments Mr Palethorpe is doing good work in his. He brings a clear business mind to bear on the innumerable details of school management, and he aims at making the boys practical and self-reliant.

This sketch of mine gives an outline of the industrial school system. It is undoubtedly more liberal and advanced than that adopted by any- older country ; but whether it is the best we can devise for New Zealand is a question not easi'y settled. Mr W. P. Reeves, as Minister of Education, took great interest in Burnham. As a man of advanced socialistic ideas who has fought strongly for the advancement of the poorer classes, it was only natural that he should see that even the children of criminals should have the right to food, clothing, and education ; but from what I can learn both he and Mr W. J. Habens. the Secretary of Education, who has an intimate knowledge of the working of our Industrial Schools, believe that there is a big error made in mixing children criminally inclined with others whose onlycrime is poverty, and the latest idea is to place as many children as possiole either with foster parents or in ser vice. This seems to me too much like a reversion to the workhouse system which Dickens painted in * Oliver Twist,' and may be open to many abuses in spite of district visitors and monthly report. The Industrial School is a long way ahead of the boarding-out method, for in the school the children can be properly educated, and trained, whilst the influence of foster parents is often bad, and their rule sometimes cruel. To me it seems that if the children were taught to look upon the school as it really is-instead of as an awful reformatory, and if some method could be devised for drafting off tile worst characters, such places as Burnham would be among the most useful of our educational establishments.