PARENTAL LAXITY, ETC.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 918, 10 September 1910, Page 12

PARENTAL LAXITY, ETC.

'yA.NEW. INSTITUTION^FOR BOYS.; > .'■ln a'reference'to. tie progress and condition of i the industrial schools of the Dominion,: the : Minister for Education, in his annual'report states;that "a pressing need' is a new industrial:school for wliii, though' not .vioibus,' are'by temperament not fit for placing out with foster-parents in .private-, homes. ''■ The: nuniber.resident at-the existing; Government' institution lor 'this-class -Of boy* has now. reached .the limit up to. which that individual training can bo effectively given • that is essential to.: the formation of a boy's: characler, and therefore I here must .bo, no' delay- in, taking;action .to. meet the, demand for another \ school. Such a need .{states the report)/is riol.to bo ; taken as' an unfavourable indication of the moral tone of the: youth of the Dominion. It is to some, extent due to the natural increase of population;/. but a far more cogent reason is to be found in the 'gi'eater- recognition -by .magistrates and ..the police of/the fact:'that by means of: such Institutions boys who are delinquent '■■ through/want of amenability to control, parental; laxity, and> similar'causes, receive a training to fit them for the duties of citizenship that otherwise would: be denied '.them. The Department has evidence;: too clear to admit of dispute tint the expenditure in connection, with the administration; of the. industrial schools system is amply recovered .to the country, on the : one hand-in the very large number of worthy and prosperous men and women who owe their positions to: the. upbringing, they have thus received,.;and on the other hand in the staying of the tide of destitution and insanity, .eriminality, and other degradation." ■■/''■ .;,/:' :>,