TE ORANGA HOME.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 277, 20 November 1907, Page 8

TE ORANGA HOME.

THE SYSTEM DESCRIBED.

(By Telegraph.—Own Correspondent.)

CHRISTCHURCH, Tuesday. With the idea of enlightening the public on the conduct of Te Oranga Home, a " Press " reporter paid an informal visit of inspection, and found that as a reformatory institution the place is conducted on excellent lines. When the home was constituted by the Government it was intended for the reception of girls of ...bad. character committed by the magistrates, and girls transferred from industrial schools as being in most instances incorrigible. It would be unfair to describe the process employed in dealing with such difficult cases as punitive. Naturally circumstances call for the exercise, of rigid discipline. Were any laxity in this respect admitted, the usefulness of the institution would be gone. In the words of the manager of the home, " There are girls detained at Te Oranga of sufficiently desperate character —of almost indelible criminal taint—who would stop at nothing to regain their liberty and to contaminate their companions with knowledge of most dreadful vices. The home is divided into two distinct portions, one being devoted to girls of the first-class, and the other to girls of the second and third classes. On being admitted each girl (save the young ones) is placed in the second class, and if she shows herself fit, or improves morally, she is raised to the first class. It will readily be understood that some such system of separating the fairly good from the obviously bad inmates is imperative, and these never meet except at meal times and in school." Mrs. Branting, the manager, states that only in very exceptional cases does she resort to corporal punishment, and only then when sufficient time has elapsed after the commission of the offence to give ample opportunity for explanation or repentance. Cells are provided, in which recalcitrants are confined for varying periods of hours, and sometimes all night, and in the latter case a mattress and bed clothes are furnished, and one of the attendants is within hail, so that the punishment amounts practically only to deprivation of companionship. In the recent exceptional case, cutting off the girls' hair was only resorted to with the concurrence of the Minister, and the girl subsequently admitted that that was the only expedient that would prevent her attempting to escape again.