E.—3

6

the clause under which a child is sent to an industrial school is by no means a reliable index of the child's moral character. The religion of the 227 children admitted during the year was thus described : Church of England, 79 ; Boman Catholic, 86 ; Presbyterian, 48 ; Methodist, 9 ; " Protestant," 4; Salvation Army, 1. Out of the total number, 53 were from Dunedin, 51 from Auckland, 32 from Wellington, and 12 from Christchurch, or 148 in all from the four chief centres of population. Of the smaller towns, Greymouth is rather prominent with 22 committals; the committals from other small towns and country districts are in every case under 10 in number.

TABLE U. —Admissions, classified according to Parents' Circumstances and Character, 1899.

The balance in the Post-Office Savings-Bank on 31st December, 1899, on account of the earnings of inmates on the books of Government industrial schools was ,£11,115 os. 5d., and on account of inmates belonging to private schools £1,411 14s. Id. The amount withdrawn during the year for inmates of Government schools was £625 7s. lid., and for inmates of private schools £27 9s. Table W shows the expenditure on the Government schools, including the cost of inmates boarded out, the salaries of the resident staffs, of the medical officers, of two official correspondents, and of the visiting officer of boarded-out and service inmates ; the table also gives the amounts of the recoveries from Charitable Aid Boards, from parents, from the sale of farm produce, &c.

TABLE W.—Expenditure on Government Schools, 1899.

'recede! it Condi ition of Childrei admitl ;ed in II )0. 43 ft © m P °* o hi 6 3 CS o ■m +4 a o O a b O © £ © © 0X1 _ <a © m 03—1 S Pi o a 3* © g © CD P M o .0 2 fcH 43 - o - U **= © ©<q Total. Fathers, described as Mothers, described as 6 0 to © P a S )ead lick, lunatic, &o. .. Sood Jnknown Dead Good Unknown Bad Good Bad Dead Sick, lunatic, &c. Good Bad Good Unknown Bad Deserter Dead Sick, lunatic, &c. Good Bad Dead Good Bad Deserter 10 5 4 2 8 1 7 1 2 1 8 i "2 i 1 16 2 10 10 i i 5 "i 1 2 5 1 3 2 3 20 2 i 1 1 i 12 12 1 25 5 2 19 4 31 14 3 4 19 1 4 1 5 45 8 6 5 1 Sad" 2 1 2 1 4 2 19 7 5 3 1 3 1 19 "2 )eserter i 1 i i Totals 83 11 60 15 55 2 227

School. Gross Cost of School. Cost of boarding out. (Included in preceding column.) Salaries of School Staff. (Included in first column.) Recoveries. Net Cost. Auckland Burnham Caversham £ s. d. 1,345 17 1 6,871 13 0 7,671 9 8 £ s. d. 688 0 8 2,580 14 9 3,167 2 8 £ s. d. 157 10 7 950 18 7 926 16 2 & b. a. £ s. a. 357 0 1 988 17 0 1,636 15 7 I 5,234 17 5 3,651 8 8 ! 4,020 1 0 Totals .. 15,888 19 9 6,435 18 1 2,035 5 4 5,645 4 4 | 10,243 15 5 ialary and expenses of Visiting Officer Jontingenoies 362 4 3 9 9 1 Total .. £10,615 8 9