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only in well-chosen, comfortable homes that children are placed. The matter of religion causes some delay in the placing of children. (6.) I fail to see what classification is required or necessary. The children boarded out are normal children, and are placed with foster-parents who have probably had a good deal of experience in the bringing-up of children, and are quite capable of giving them the treatment that ordinary children require. What is needed is for people to realise that the majority of inmates of industrial schools are not so very different from their own children ; and the boarding-out system will bring this about better than anything. There are, naturally, cases where constant supervision and spec -in 1 treatment are required : and schools are provided for the reception of these, and the results which ensue are very satisfactory indeed. (c.) With regard to inspection, I again fail to see what more is required. A foster-parent never knows the time that either an Official Visiting Officer or a Manager may pop in. To my knowledge visits are sometimes made as early as 7 a.m. and as late as 10 or 11 p.m., and thus it is known what, a home is like under all conditions. I should be quite willing to have any one accompany me on my rounds. As a Manager, I can safely say I have not one home that is not satisfactory, and it would do disbelievers good to see for themselves. They would be convinced of the affection that exists between foster-parents and children. Inspection in Otago consists of Departmental Visitors as often as the Department thinks proper to send them ; the Manager, who goes round at odd times and as often as possible, the foster-parent never knowing when to expect her : also, the Visiting Nurse under the infant-life-protection system, when in the different districts, is instructed to call in at certain homes. The Local Visitors report monthly, and the school-teachers quarterly. (d.) If children at the time of admission are old enough to remember the things they may nave seen, they are not placed in a home where there are other children—that is, if they an- placed out at all ; but. as a rule, they are kept in residence until by observation their proper place in the classification is determined. If children of depraved parents were to be treated as depraved and sent to special institutions, a stigma would be upon them when they had to go out into the world to earn their living. I am well assured a child coming to the years of reasoning would feel most bitterly the inhuman slur thus placed upon him for the faults of his parents. There are many who would not try to battle against the handicap that would attach itself to those who had been known to have been brought up in a " 1 [ome for the Children of Depraved Parents," and would be embittered by being ever conscious of the fact throughout their live*. I know of no cases myself where Ihe introduction of industrial-school children into the home has resulted in the family suffering in any way. As I have mentioned before, provision has been made for children likely to bring about a result of this kind. If children are placed in well selected homes, there is a distinct gain to the State, as there will be a very small percentage who will go wrong when under good influences. One has only to go through the records of past inmates to prove this. I could name many young men and women who have applied personally for their bank-money -all highly respectable workers; and their history as infants what was it '. Taken out of brothels and placed in good homes —the result, a highly respectable young man or woman. The most sorrowful thing. 1 think, that I have had to do was when a decent and well-dressed young man asked me if I could tell him anything about his people. I looked at the particulars of his admission. He came an infant to the school, but the history of the parents was so bad I could tell him nothing, vet with good environment this young man had grown up a thrifty and respectable citizen. Shortly after coming to this work I was profoundly astonished at the results of past efforts, and it was a revelation to me on learning of the humane treatment meted out to the children under the Government care. If children are to be stigmatized by being put into Homes for children of depraved parents, what of the dozens who legally adopt children of this class? Does one hear of evil results from their doing so ? (c.) Special care is taken in selecting homes for children suffering from hereditary taint if they are plae-ed out. Very often it is considered advisable to keep them in the institutions provided for that purpose. Most of the homes chosen are with people of mature age who have brought up families of their own, and more often than not are in comfortable circumstances. The children of the State are thus the distinct gainers through their having the benefit of the foster-parents' experience. I find that tin- majority of the foster-parents can deal very intelligently with the special characteristics of their charges, and such cases as are beyond the management of foster-parents are taken into the schools. (a.) The cottage-home system is carried on in England extensively. There is no other way to cope with the numbers, as it would be impossible to board and care individually for each child as is done in the Dominion ; but I certainly do not think that in New Zealand the cottage-home system would be an improvement on the boarding-out system. You get twenty homes, say, of ten children in each ; they are built a few yards apart ; the children go to the same day-school : what can it be, after all. but institution life ? Even then the home-keepers may prove unsuitable and incapable, and may not carry out their work any better or as well as the foster-parents under the boarding-out system, besides depriving the children of experiencing the happiness of real home-life, which there is no doubt whatever they enjoy at board. Why should they be brought up differently from other children unless they have shown that they require special treatment ? During the time that I have been in the work I have seen such good results of the boarding-out system that I honestly feel that the homeinfluence given to these children is the very best thing that could happen to them. Many of the children are adopted by the foster-parents, and in other eases the treatment received from the foster-parent is such that when the children attain adult age they go back to their old foster-homes and there always find a welcome. There are also cases where the children do not know that they belong to the school, and look on the foster-parents as their real parents, and there have been others where the foster-parents have left their all to the children under their care. The children brought up in careful homes have quite a different stamp from those brought up in an institution, and, no 5—E. 4.

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