SAVING THE LADS.

Press, Volume LIV, Issue 16164, 19 March 1918, Page 7

SAVING THE LADS.

THE WOfiK DONE AT BURNHAM. j Discipline is the keynote of tho management 1 of the boys who find their way to the Burnham Industrial School. Lads of the calibre that many of them are, could pot ho majiaged possibly in any other way, but though the manager and his attendants may bo strict, they can also be kind, and many an unfortunate youth has.been given a new start on life's.way through the kindly interest.' and good offices of Mr T. Archey, who' has been manager of the school for the past twenty years. A "Press" reporter was shown round the institution yesterday by Mr Archey, and, during tho tour, tho pressman was afforded many opportunities of observing'tho system in voguo at work, and of its effect generally upon the inmates. Duo largely to'the recent reorganisation of tbo industrial school system, and partly to tho effects of the war, Burnham Industrial School is not the that it onco was. The younger lads v who overstep the bounds ef the law are now sent to Stoke, in Nelson, whilst the older boys generally find their way to the Weraroa Stato

hrm in tho .North Island. Burnham is generally reserved for the harder cases. As a result, instead of their being any- . thing like up to 180 inmates as in times gone by, there are now not 40 at tho School, t,lio staff has been reduced in consequence, and the manager finds it a'task to adequately attend to the multifarious requirements of tho school thousand-acre farm attached thereto. What is also keeping lads from .Burnham is the new schcme -which J.TOWdes fori the appointment of special probation officers m every one of the Jjntir centres J Theso gontlemon, Mr Archey are doing splendid work. Many of the lads havo also gone to tho front, and some havo made the supreme sacrifice. There is definite knowledge •hat 364 ex-inmates havo either been to the front, aro there now, or are in training in the reinforcement camps, and it is believed that there are many Wore in addition. .Owing to the reduction in tho number of boys, many of the school buildings are not now in regular , use, and m particular tho detention yard, tho bote noire of "many Burnham lads, has been abandoned. The dormitories havo aJso been reduced in number. Those •hat are in use were inspected by "The Press" representatives, and were found by him t? be beautifully clean, light, acd airy rooms. To manage a number of lads of tho type that are to be found at Burnham rttmues m a man many qualities, and w ' s t walking round with the manager yesterday, the reporter was interested jn observing tho discipline maintained. 7j ,lna ? a ® er " call a lad, who immediately would como running up at - lt° üb '° a . n£ l salute, and he given an order, which was instantly obeyed. ®o CU ti US i^ ature the system was the lads sang grace at their midJ meal. Tho opening words issued JJpni their mouths like a stone shot worn a catapult, it continued in tho same staccato fashion, and as suddenly ceased as though by one voice. WithBif lct , dlsci l llilll! in a place like however, one could easily un. ° . mma ies becoming unruly and overstepping all bounds. An institution like Burnham is the onlv way ot saving many lads whose wifd unW P lu ed nntures in the past have been the cause of their undoing. /»: the result of their stay under Mr toS S - C i ire ' m r a ?- of the «» have deTn? , ? useful members of society lnough the manager can bo strict, he can. on occasion, bo also kind. It all depends upon the lad he is addressing and more than one received a word of encouragement cr the term "good lad.'> for some willing service that he took a ' n rc P ortin S having done. When Mr Archcy first went to Burniam tho farm attached to tho institution looked practically hopeless, its soil was of the poorest, the surface soil had been drained away, and its sub-soil mostly composed of shingle, was covered by masses of broom and gorse. Howcv?'- .' dint of long years of intensive cultivation, ho has transformed the plaoo intf. a smiling area practicallv free of broom and upon which ho successfully proves crops of lucerne end cr "P 8 - Thore is an excellent vegot- , able garden, whilst the orchard is on© iPf tfle-best in Canterbury.

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