E.—4.

Child-placing System. Assisted Service, Higher Education, and Employment of State Children over School Age. At the end of the year 130 State wards over fourteen years of age were in attendance at primary schools and maintained by the Department, 58 were attending secondary schools, and 31 technical schools. Of the State wards in employment, 122, mainly apprentices, were being partly maintained by the Department. Infant-life Peotection (Infants Act, 1908). At the end of the year 1,131 infants and young children were supervised in 944 licensed fosterhomes. Of these, 806 homes had one child each, 105 had two children each, 26 had three children each, 4 had four children each, 2 had five children each, and 1 home had nine children. Adoptions. By an arrangement with the Department of Justice, applications for adoptions are investigated by Child Welfare Officers before being dealt with by a Magistrate. During the year 337 children were adopted, and in 30 of these cases premiums were received by the Department's agents, and paid out usually at the rate of 15s. per week for each child concerned. Of the total number of children adopted, 61 were under the age of six months, 59 between the age of six and twelve months, 118 between the age of one and five years, 58 between the age of five and ten years, and 41 between the age of ten and fifteen years.

Table 1.—Status of Children and Young Persons under the Guardianship of the Superintendent at 31st March, 1932.

Table 2. —Committals and Admissions during the Yeae ended 31st March, 1932. The following table shows the admissions according to age : —

2—E. 4j

3

Status. Boys. Girls. Totals. In residence .. .. .. .. .. 158 130 288 Boarded out .. .. .. .. .. 1,340 949 2,289 At service .. .. .. .. .. 608 303 911 Witt friends .. .. .. .. .. 410 378 788 In hospitals, convalescent homes, &c. .. .. j 12 6 18 In refuges or cognate institutions .. .. .. j .. 97 97 In orphanages .. .. .. .. .. I 45 18 63 Absent without leave .. .. .. .. 18 5 23 In Borstal institutions .. .. .. .. 5 .. 5 Y.M.C.A. Hostel, Auckland .. .. .. 16 .. 16 Institute for the Blind .. .. .. .. .. 1 1 In colleges .. .. .. .. .. .. 2 2 In Girls'Hostel, Wellington .. .. ... .. 14 14 In residence, Roman Catholic schools .. .. 33 54 87 In schools for mentally backward .. .. ... 184 83 267 In School for Deaf, Sumner .. .. .. 2 6 ■-.■■■ - 6 In mental hospitals .. .. .. .. 4 2 6 Totals 2,835 2,048 4,883 ~

Boys. Girls. Totals Under six months .. .. .. .. 35 24 59 Over six months and under one year .. .. 14 11 25 - One year to five years .. .. - ■ .: : ■ .. 61 27 •■• : - ■ .88 Five years to ten years .. ., .-.;. 70 40 110 Ten years to fourteen years .. .. . j. 73 35 108 Over fourteen years .. .. .. .'. 108 59 167 Totals .. ... .. ..361/; - 196> ; ..'■_- '■','■■. 557