E.—4

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(6.) The second objection, as to the impossibility of classification, is easily disposed of, as the only class required for very young children is that the defective child be isolated in hospital or Home. (c.) The difficulty of thorough inspection appears to have- been solved by the Department. Supervision by Local Visitors, by the Manager of the school, by an officer of the Department .ought to secure adequate inspection, especially if, wherever any doubt as to the suitability of a home arises, the child be given the benefit of the doubt. (il.) No child in whom evil tendencies develop should be allowed to remain in a foster-home, and no child in whom evil tendencies are apparent should be placed in a foster-home. (c.) I have already said that children suffering from hereditary taint ought not to be boarded out. The ignorance and incompetence of the foster-mot her to properly trail) children intrusted to her care points to a growing canker in the social life of New Zealand—the failure of family life and the lessening of the sense of parental responsibility, arising probably from a general weakening of the sense of moral responsibility. Por delinquent', wayward, and defective children, the institution, or. 1 might call it, the school, is in my opinion undoubtedly the best training-ground. In a growing country like New Zealand classification could be complete. (1.) Schools for mentally defective ; (2.) For the training of normal older children who are simply dependent through circumstances outside their own control ; (.'5.) For the younger children suffering from hereditary taint ; (1.) For the older who are morally defective ; and, last of all, (5.) For the apparently incorrigible. ( ullage homes appear to me to manifest the- disadvantages of both the boarding-out and institution systems, with the advantages of neither. (a.) It is not a home. A well-designed institution building need be no less suitable and comfortable. (b.) Classification further destroys all likeness to the home, (c.) The inspection of the foster-home and school may be just as thorough. (c/.) Separation would be difficult to carry out : the children in cottage homes would meet in the day-school. (c.) Scientific training and education consist in the best method of adapting children to their future life, and this could be secured in foster-homes and in the school. Cottage homes would not admit of the freedom and intimacy of the home, and would lack the advantages derived from a corporate life, the public opinion of the school, the- esprit de corps, the spirit of emulation. Those under whose- immediate influence and guardianship the children would find themselves would not be persons of education or of special training. There would be frequent changes. The cottage would not give the child friends, would exert no influence upon his after-life. If the difficulty of finding suitable foster-homes becomes insuperable, cottage homes for the younger children, under the management of single women or widows, would be preferable to institution-life ; but these homes should be entirely dissociated from the institution, and situated in country districts where the children would attend the ordinary district school. My experience of what has been done under the boarding-out system has been favourable ; but I recognise-, now that a new population is taking the place of the old colonists with their higher sense of moral responsibility, the "suitable homes" will be increasingly difficult to find. I think, however, it would be most unwise to abandon a system which is based upon such sound principles. Wherever it is possible to find a good home, the child should be placed there ; when it becomes impossible, a cottage home should be provided. For boys over eight years and for girls over ten committed for delinquency the institution is the. most suitable habitat. The charges brought against institution life, I think, are—its unnatural conditions ; the monotony of existence : the administration, which provides mechanical contrivances for doing the work instead of training the inmates in the use of the ordinary appliance's of small homes, farms, and workshops ; and the failure to provide 1 a training in thrift and economy. The charge first named cannot be combated. In a letter to Miss Wordsworth, the Headmaster of Wellington College, afterwards Archbishop Benson, writes, " I seem to see Wellington College four hundred years hence, with a happy party spelling out the E and the B and the M..gister of an old stone in the days when parents, having recognised their own duties to their children, marvel that ever they could have been sent to herd in the masses of a public- school." What the late Archbishop felt in relation to a great public, school must be felt in regard to every school and similar institution : the life is an unnatural one. The other charges which I named have only to be recognised to be provided against. Practically, in New Zealand I think it will be found necessary to enlarge this institution, to establish an institution in Christchurch and Wellington, and no doubt to provide an institution for boys in the South Island. I have, &c, The Secretary for Education. Wellington. Sarah K. Jackson, Manager.

Sir, — Industrial School, Caversham. 10th November, 1908. In reference to your circular memorandum of the 4th instant. I beg to make the- following remarks. I might sum the whole matter iqi in one sentence, and that is. to continue on the same broad lines as at present, and to make such improvement from time- to time as is justified by future needs. In answer to, — ■ ((/.) There has been some difficulty in placing young infants, but in every case, after a little delay, perhaps, very suitable homes have- been found ; and I am sure there will be less difficulty in this respect on account of new districts being opened up. There are any amount of homes of a kind ; but it is