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and clearing are also taught. For the boys there are classes in bootmaking, printing, carpentry. All the institution painting is done by the boys under one paid artisan teacher. Orchestra: The leader—a teacher—played the piano, and the other members were four violinists, two celloists, and a cornet-player. Social-service Work : Had interesting conversation with Miss Bassett, the head social-service worker. Her duties are —(1) Interviewing parents and friends and getting a picture of the home atmosphere ; (2) after-care, including finding jobs, parole, supervision outside, &c. "We are no longer sending the children back to their parents. It was not a success, as it meant a return to the same old wrong atmosphere." (N.B. —Compare day schools.) "We have eighty children on probation. We have more demands for these children than we can supply. People know they are well trained, and they nearly always do well, although we have our difficulties. It is my job to see they are well placed and that the people treat them fairly. The parents who have these children are interested in them, and they get together and discuss the best methods of handling them, &c." The Laboratory : Staff meets weekly to discuss each case and determine its possibilities. Waverley. —Much the same system as at Letchworth. Dr. Greene told me that during one year the 300 patients on probation from his institution earned $70,000 (£14,000). Probation lasts from two to five years, and if the conduct is satisfactory the child is discharged to the care of a socialservice worker. Wrentham. —Nothing special to note. Vmelands. —Population, 527, of all ages and both sexes, but the older males are transferred to a farm colony about four miles away. Groups admitted are —Idiots, 8 per cent. ; imbeciles, 48 per cent.; morons, 44 per cent. Staff, 110, of whom 60 per cent, are women. The Superintendent has no power to discharge—this lies with the Central Board. The Manor, Epsom, England'.—This is an old mental hospital adapted as a residential school. The buildings are not of the most modern type, but the administration is a model of what it should be in this work. Population, 1,053, with 80 absent on license. Both sexes are admitted, and provision is made for children and adults, but idiots and the lower grade of imbeciles are not admitted. The outfit and apparatus are not so elaborate as in the United States, but occupation of some sort is found for 100 per cent, of the inmates. Dr. Littlejohn's comments : All children below sixteen attend the schools, but " as practically all these children have already been through the special schools (day) we do not worry much about the educational side. In any case the majority of these children will not return to the community, and so we try and make them useful members of the Manor institution." Industries. —The girls in the schools do plain sewing, make mats and rugs on frames, &c., and then are passed on to the industrial section, where the following work is done : (1) making windowcords —a simple pleating process ; (2) mattress-making, including carding hair ; (3) lacemaking ; (4) papier-mache work ; (5) bass mats, mats for motor-cars, &c. ; (6) brushes —tooth-brushes, toiletbrushes, bath-brushes, brooms, &c. ; (7) paper bags and envelopes ; (8) about ten girls are employed on the farm. Boys : (1) Printing ; (2) bookbinding ; (3) bootmaking and repairing ; (4) basketmaking ; (5) mats ; (6) tinsmithing ; (7) " breeze-block " making ; (8) farm and garden work ; (9) carpentry ; (10) brushmaking ; (11) house-painting. All these industries are thoroughly taught, and the inmates become exceedingly proficient. I am attaching to this report an article by Dr. Littlejohn upon his early difficulties at the Manor, and I can endorse many of his views from my own experiences. Supplementing his article to me in conversation Dr. Littlejohn said : " When this new disease of mental deficiency was discovered there was a general demand that the mental-hospital staffs should have nothing to do with the care of these patients. Things got to such a pitch that the clerk who had written letters about mental patients was dismissed ; even the pump hand had to go because he had pumped water for the insane ! " The three assistant medical officers had to leave, and only Littlejohn himself was left, and naturally for some time there was chaos. This description I insert because a similar demand has been made in New Zealand in connection with the suggested establishment of half-way houses. The Medical Superintendent is not allowed to discharge patients—-he can recommend discharge to the General Board of Control, and Dr. Littlejohn thinks this is a wise provision. .He can refer parents to the more remote and impersonal central authority, which prevents any friction between parents and Superintendents. Certain girls after training go to domestic situations, but they are kept on the books permanently. This is beneficial to the girls, because if the employers are not suitable and sympathetic the Superintendent can recall the girls and place them elsewhere. If they were free agents they would simply give up their positions, seek others probably less suitable, and finally become destitute. The Medical Superintendent is really in the position of a father to all the children, and is aided in this part of the work by the social-service workers of the London Voluntary After-care Association. Moneyhull Colony and Residential School, Birmingham. —This colony is a poor-law institution with which is associated a special residential school, gazetted as such under the Act. It is situated near Birmingham, covers an area of 320 acres, and has accommodation for 1,000 cases in the colony and 300 children in the school. The Medical Superintendent, Dr. McCutcheon, is a New-Zealander, who is considered by the Board of Control to be one of the best men doing mental-deficiency work in England. The children in the school are not committed under a detention order, but by a certificate of the Education Authority, which retains control till they reach the age of sixteen years. The school authorities notify the local Deficiency Committee of the district to which the child belongs when the child is approaching that age, and it becomes the duty of the district committee to arrange for

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