INDUSTRIAL SCHOOLS.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XIX, Issue 13, 26 December 1890, Page 19

INDUSTRIAL SCHOOLS.

(Nelson Colonist, December 13.) Benevolent theorists and official bnsybodies for some time past devoted themselves to running down the system, and consequently the services to humanity rendered under it, in accordance with which our Orphanages and Industrial Schools have been conducted. The cry of both was, tbat neglected and orphan children ought on do account mingle in the same institution witb those convicted of any crime. At the first blush there seems to be something so fair and just in the proposition that many a sensible man has been harried into assenting to it without enquiry. To many it presented itself as a self-evident proposition, wnich to question or deny implied defective reasoaing faculties. la the course of the disou«ioa iv the Legislative Council on a Bill dealing with Industrial Schools, it was proposed to add a clause that would have made It necessary to provide new institutions to receive the onec!as9 or the other, aa it was intended to make their continuance under the sam« roof unlawful. Fortunately there were present some who were not prepared to surrender their judgments at the bidding of either enthusiasts or officials, so a Committee wasjappointed to enquire fully into what is now done, and as to tbe need, or otherwise of the changes demanded. A great mass of evidence was taken, and it is nothing mor« than the bare truth to say, that by far the most important witness, the only one, in fact, who spoke on every branch of tha question with the authority and weight of personal experience, was our much respected fellow citiz n, tbe Very B^v. Father Maboney. On the surface there was the difficulty of drawing the line between the neglected and the criminal ; and next of dealing with tbe still mora intricate problem of toe circumstances under which, and the probabilities of tbe reformation of infants condemned as wicked because they had been before a Court. No one denied or could deny that, except in rare instances, the pure babes, as they were styled, who had not been found guilty of a criminal act, were living in precisely the same state, with the same evil surroundings and examples as those it was thoughtlessly, yet cruel y. sought to stamp witb tbe infamy of a lepulaive uame. Tbese dreadful offenders were guilty of the unpardonable Bin of being caugot. It w*s proved that, as a rule, the great majority of both classes were from dwellings— homes they could seldom be truly called— of tha BHme description. Their associates were the same ; they revelled in the same gutters ; aad their petty pilferings ware shared. Father Mahon y, by bis plain, direct statement, upset t»e proposals of those as ignorant of the management of lodu trial Schools as of all elsa pertaining to reformition in preference to punishment. Hia long experience and sympathetic observation showed him that separation from vioious surroundings is *8 effectual for good where a cbild happens to have been before a Magistrate as with one whose fortune it is to have escaped detection. In no true eeuse can children of tender years, who have broken a law whose very existeuce was unknown to them, be called criminals. When admitted to that noble institution bo long under Father Mahoney's fostering care, those who have been convicted are informed that all knowledge of their misconduct will be c mfined to those in charge. Thus all are on the earne footing at entry as to character, aad in their subsequent conduct no difference is to be discovered. The neglected are in no way injured, while the criminal emerges without taint, and conduct! himself as well as those it was alleged he would certainly corrupt. A practical refutation of the speculative doctrine of the necessity of separation is found in the fact, tbat the applican s for boys trained at Stoke are always in excess of the number whose time has expired. The Committee was convinced how excelleuta work wa9 being done, and in their report approved the methods now in force as tending to good.