TE ORANGO HOME ENQUIRY.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXI, Issue 9048, 14 March 1908, Page 5

TE ORANGO HOME ENQUIRY.

at TEIiEGISAPH —I'KK«S ASSOCIATION. • CHRISTCHURCH, March 13. Further evidence in connection with Te Oranga Home inquiry wa3 heard to-day. The principal witness was Mr William Reece, who was appointed to the position of offiical visitor in 1905. He very strongly urged the necessity for a more extensive system of classification. He proposed that all girls when first entering the home should be put in a middle class and subsequently raised to the highest class or dropped to the lowest acceding to their good or bad behaviour. Girls affected with certain diseases should not be admitted to the home until they were fit to be classified. He suggested that an indeterminate system should be applied to sexual degenerates instead of the State relinquishing control when such a girl reached the age of 21. As to the general management of the Home he spoke in high terms of the matron and staff, and remarked that the inmates always appeared to be happy and contented.

Dr. Symes, formerly medical officer, also supported a more extensive classification with special provision elsewhere for sexual degenerates who came of age while inmates of the home. He suggested the substitution of regulated labour such as prevailed in female penitentiaries at Home for physical punishment, and he opposed long confinement in cells as prejudicial to health. He considered the hair-cutting harmless, and an excellent means of checking absconding. The Rev. Inwood, Anglican Minister, and several members of the Home staff, gave evidence in favour of the present management.

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