THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. FRIDAY, APRIL 10, 1908 TE ORANGA HOME INVESTIGATION.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXI, Issue 9062, 10 April 1908, Page 4

THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. FRIDAY, APRIL 10, 1908 TE ORANGA HOME INVESTIGATION.

In our telegraphic columns yesterday we published a precis of the report of the Commissioner (Mr Bishop, 5.M.,) appointed to enquire into the management and general work ing of Te Oranga Home. The full report is now before us, and it is satisfactory to note that the allegations of inhuman treatment of the inmates, which were so rife a few months ago, have been disproved, and equally satisfactory is it to learn that the methods adopted by the management, however undesirable they may appear in some respects, have not prevented the achievement of good results. It would apnear that the corporal punishments and incarcerations which have been in vogue in the institution, have been, to some extant at least, necessitated by the al.sence of room for efficient classification.

While giving credit to the management for the work done, and the beneficial results achieved under difficult circumstances, the Commissioner does not hesitate to severely censure those aspects of the system which, to his mind, are emphatically bad. Dealing with the question of corporal punishment inflicted upon girls, he remarks: —"I cannot bring myself to believe that the infliction of the strap is a fit and proper punishment under any circumstances for any of these girls; but most certainly do I hold very strongly that the strapping of young women

as carried out in this school is perfectly unjustifiable. To think of a young woman of 20 years of age, laid on a bed, face down, clothed in a nightdress, and receiving 12 strokes of a strap on her body, is, to my mind, most repellant, besides being quite opposed to all modern methods of securing discipline."

To assert, as it had been asserted, that it would be impossible to run the institution if corporal punishment were abolished, was, to Mr Bishop's mind, "a serious admission of weakness." That kind of punishment, he contends, answers no good purpose either as a deterrent in itself or by way of example. On the matter of cell punishment:, the Commissioner has no objection to raise, save that it has evidently not been strictly supervised. He rightly remarks that "there should be no margin of possibility of abuse creeping into the infliction of any form of punishment," He takes exception to the hair-cutting punishment, and doubts if the Department possessed any authority for permitting the act. The "punishment dresses" had been, he found, brought into use without Ministerial sanction, and he recommends the discontinuance of it, as well as the practice of boxing of ears and slapping.

Mr Bishop's remarks on the methods of punishment form a pretty severe indictment of the Department and the management, and no doubt the more objectionable features will now be abolished. The Minister in charge of the Department (Hon. G. Fowlds) believes that when the buildings are added to, and Ihe classification of inmates, which Mr Bishop recommends, is carried out, it will not be found necessary to resort to corporal punishment, or hair-cutting, as a means of enforcing discipline.

The Commissioner having condemned the forms of punishment, proceeds to treat of the conduct of the institution generally, and her,e he finds much that is beyond censure. The food is ample in quantity and excellent in quality. The staff is sufficently 'large to prevent undue strain upon any of its members, and it works together harmoniously. As to the success of the school in improving the moral and social conditions of the inmates, Mr Bishop points out that since the Home was opened in 1900 sixty-two girls have passed out of control. At the termination of the period of detention thirty-two of these were of good character, thirteen might be described as fair, eight were bad, three were missing, three were mental defectives, and three had died.

"I agree," says Mr Bishop, "with the opinion of the department that a complete success should not be claimed until the inmate has been beyond the control of the school for at least three years. Applying this test, there are only thirty-nine girls who have been beyond control for three years, and of these nineteen are known to be of good character, two are unknown, two are weak-minded, two are in a private institution, and one has died." Under all the circumstances, the Commissioner thinks the results distinctly good.

After giving a graphic, but terrible picture, of the moral condition of the girls sent to the Home —girls brought direct from Chinese dens, from the open streets, from th? company of dissolute parents; girls who have never had a chance to live straightly and decently—he asks:— "Can we wonder at th? failures in the face cf such enormous difficulties?" Then he proceeds to show how many nf thesa dehumanised creatures have, under the training of the Ta Oranga Home, become humanised, and have been pent out to the world in every way reformed. "They have becotne gentle in their manners, thev have a good address, they show undoubted evidence of refinement." Reflecting upon all this, the Commissioner closes his remarks:—"Yes, in spite of many short-comings, many drawbacks, many weaknesses, one cannot but feel grateful to the management for much N excellent work that is being done." * * * * * The final paragraph of the Commissioner's report deals with indeterminate letention. Here he touches the real service of reform in such as are raformable. This system, he believes—and he will have many who will believe with him—would do more to help forward the work of reformatories than anything else. "The necessity for punishment would be gradually reduced, and the percenta.e of failures would be gradually brought down to a minimum.' I earnestly commend the whole question to the consideration of the Government." * * * * * And so ends this most interesting document. It is, perhaps, well that even exaggerated reports respecting (he treatment of the inmates of To Oranga got abroad, as it has led to this investigation which dincloses tho merits and defects of the reformatory system. There will now be a reform of the reforming methods, and out of evil in this matter much good may be expected to rssult.