BURNHAM INDUSTRIAL SCHOOL.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXIX, Issue 8271, 26 October 1906, Page 7

BURNHAM INDUSTRIAL SCHOOL.

COMMISSIONER'S REPORT. By Telegraph—Press Assocatiion. WELLINGTON, October 25. The report of Mr Bishop, S.M., upon the Barnbara Industrial Souodl was presented to Parliament. The Commissioner states:—l am astonished as the result of tbis long and searching enquiry that tbere is so little real fault to be found with the institution, and its management. 1 ooisider that it constitutes a great reoord for Mr Arohey. It would, of coarse, be quite easy to find fault with many email details, and the effect of these might easily be magnified and made capital of against the insiitution, but viewing the whole question broadly I consider the result wonderfully good. I can give no more convincing proof of sincerity of tbis opinion than by stating that an the result of this enquiry I have totally changed my opinion of the Burnham Sobool F.od its work and the management. I shall be much more charitable in my criticism in future than 1 have been in the past." As to olaßßiflcation, Mr Bishop says: "I hold very strongly tne opinion that so long as certain boys are allowed to remain at Btirnham the State is not doing its duty by those nther children in the institution whose care Bnd reform it has undertaken, and whom it is morally bound *o do its very best to turn into good and deoent citizens. One weak Bpot at Burnham is the abso lnte impossibility of oarrying out an erTeotive system of classification owing to the preseuoe of a large number of hopelessly bad boys, who are a constant source of contamination to others, and who, having shown themselves to be absolutely inoapable of being reformed, are retained there.only to become an ever present menace to the safety of the institution. Such boys as these have no right to be in Burnham. They have ceased by their oonduot to be entitled to snob humane treatment as that. They are moral lepers and must te treated as such. They number about 12 per cent, of present inmates, who total 112. They should be removed without delay to a separate institution, which should be a sort of disciplinary reformatory at) distinguished from the first-class reformatory such as Burnham ought to be. 1 know of no place that woold be better suited for sach purpose than the present Timatu gaol. It is very little used now for its original purpose, and if obtainable could be very easily adapted for use as a disciplinary reformatory. I strongly reoomraend tbis suggestion to the favourable consideration of the Government. I can scarcely overestimate the importance of tbis change, and in addition to the inherently vioioua boys that I have referred to there are at leaßt 10 per cent, of others who are mental defectives, and who on no eocount should be allowed to remain at the Hurnbam School. These are boys who by their lack of mental development are inoapable of being benefited by ordinary reformatory methods. In a sense they are just as vicious as others and quite as fruitful sources of contamination, but their sense of responsibility ia not, of coarse, as great. They are not subjects for a mental hospital, but they are equally not subjects for Bnrnbam. They should be separately and speoially treated. I see no reason why they could not be adequately provided for in suoh a disciplinary reformatory as I suggest the Timaru gaol should be ,made into." The Commissioner found that the general treatment of tne inmates was distinctly good.