financial

On this head the Commission recommend that the Guardians Proposed should be the payers and collectors of all sums due for the main- arrangetenance of children in these schocls. Their words are

'In the case of industrial schools, day industrial schools, and truant schools,

'(a) The discontinuance of the present contributions from quarter sessions and town councils,* and of direct contributions from school boards, and the substitution of a contribution from the Guardians for every child, on the following scale per week :—

7s. 6d. for refractory pauper children committed on the representation of the Guardians.

2s. 6d. for cases under detention in industrial schools or truant schools.

2s. for children in district industrial schools.

(b) The collection and detention of parents' payments by the Guardians, as a set-off against the above contributions.

'(c) The payment to the Guardians by the School Board of the difference between the amount received from the Treasury and parents' contributions, and the amount necessary for the maintenance of child.

(d) The Guardians to have power of occasional inspection.

'(e) The Court should make two orders, the one on the Guardians at the time of committal, the other on the parent, fixing the amount of his payment.

'(ƒ) The liabilities of the Guardians and parent for their respective payments should commence from the date of committal.

'(g) The Court should have power to increase the amount of the parents' payment, upon the Guardians' application and proof of change in the parents' circumstances.'

It is clear from all this that the difficulty that is found in the administration of the Poor Law reasserts itself in a very grave form in connection with reformatory and industrial schools. Parents are unscrupulous and ready to secure any small advantage in the battle of life. Any provision of relief by the State must be in part punitive or repellent, or it will be too readily accepted. If the State, with its legal powers of exacting payment, is unable to cope with the difficulty of enforcing parental obligations, charity is weaker still, and her interference in these cases is often productive of evil without any redeeming feature. Also, while there is this vast State machinery for dealing with this class of cases, charity, as in its co-operation with the Poor Law, should leave to it its proper work, and should restrict itself to the exceptional case, which it would be unjust to treat as one of the mass, or which cannot be included in the terms of the

*The authority would now in London be the County Council.

ments.

A typical case of admission

to a home wrongly given.

For whom certified industrial

schools are intended.

Acts. Thus guarding itself, charity may find it well to help parents whose children require for a short period special discipline or training, by obtaining their admission to homes. Many homes for various classes are mentioned in the Register.

The following is an instance of the cases for which, we think, admission to homes is frequently wrongly obtained, but in which if anything should be done, it should be done by the means provided by the State. Two girls, 11 and 8 years of age, whose mother is dead and whose father can earn 30s. a week when in work, are utterly uncared for. The parents have never received parish relief. There are four uncles, aged 21, 19, 16, 14; all but the last are occupied, and earn 30s., 20s., and 6s. respectively. None of them are married. There are four aunts: one a servant earning 5s. a week; one a nurse earning the same sum; one a rag and bone dealer; and one a mission woman. The earnings of the two latter cannot be ascertained. The aunt who is a servant has one of the children, but her mistress will not allow her to keep the child any longer. The father is very often out of work, and even when he is in work the home is wretched, and the influence on the young children is most injurious. To take these children from a family whose weekly earnings amount to 66s., excluding those whose earnings are not stated—while the father, if he keeps steady, can earn 30s. a week— appears to us a doubtful kindness. Either the father and family should be induced to support them, placing them with neighbours, or providing for them in some other way, or the School Board or some public authority should interfere. The interest which charitable people take in such cases leads the relations to expect help. In this instance the children were placed in a home for some time, the father promising to contribute. But the contributions soon ceased, and the children without payment could not be kept at the home, and they were thus summarily thrown on the hands of the person who had taken up the case, who had no means of continuing to pay for them. What then are the conditions of the assistance granted by law? They will be found in the three following sections.

XLIII.-CERTIFIED INDUSTRIAL SCHOOLS.

These are schools in which 'industrial training is provided, and in which children are lodged, clothed, and fed, as well as taught.' Their rules have to be approved by the Secretary of State, and they are under the inspection of the Home Office. Reformatory schools (see p. xcvii.) are for children between the ages of 10 and 16 who have been convicted of an offence punishable with penal servitude or imprisonment. Industrial schools are for children 'apparently under 14, exposed to vice and crime. A child may not be detained in such a school beyond the age of 16, except with his own consent

in writing. In the Industrial Schools Act, four classes are specifically mentioned.* (1.) A child

'Found begging or receiving alms (whether actually or under the pretext of selling or offering anything for sale), or being in any street or public place for the purpose of so begging or receiving alms:

6

Found wandering, and not having any home or settled place of abode, or proper guardianship, or visible means of subsistence;

'Found destitute, either being an orphan or having a surviving parent who is undergoing penal servitude or imprisonment;

'Frequenting the company of reputed thieves.'

To these are added by the Industrial Schools Amendment Act of 1880 (43 & 44 Vict. c. 15, s. 1)—

'A child lodging, living, or residing with common or reputed prostitutes, or in a house resided in or frequented by prostitutes for the purposes of prostitution;

Or that frequents the company of prostitutes.'

Any person may bring before two justices or a magistrate any child, apparently under the age of 14 years, that comes under any of the above descriptions.

If the magistrate finds that the child does in fact come under one of these descriptions, and he thinks it expedient to deal with him under the Act, he may send him to a certified industrial school.

The other classes of children that may be dealt with under the Act

are

(2) A child apparently under 12 years of age who is 'charged before two justices or a magistrate with an offence punishable by imprisonment or a less punishment, but has not been convicted in England of felony or in Scotland of theft.' The magistrate may order the child to be sent to an industrial school-regard being had to his age and the circumstances of the case.'

(3) A child apparently under the age of 14 brought before the magistrate by his parent, step-parent, or guardian, who represents that he is unable to control him and desires him to be sent to an industrial school. In this case the magistrate may deal with the child under the Act, if on inquiry he is satisfied that it is expedient to do so.

Child

offenders

under 12

years of age.

Children control or

beyond

' refractory.'

Poor Law

(4) A child apparently under the age of 14 in a workhouse or Children in pauper school, or in a district pauper school, who is represented Pools by the Board of Guardians or School Board of Management or under 14. Parochial Board as being refractory, or the child of parents either of whom has been convicted of a crime or an offence punishable with penal servitude or imprisonment. In this case the magistrate may give a similar order, if he thinks it expedient.

*29 & 30 Vict., c. 118.

Arrangements for sending

child, etc.

Placing out children sent

schools on

license.

The order must (in England) be made by two or more justices in petty sessions, or a stipendiary magistrate, or the Lord Mayor or an alderman of the city of London.

Under other Acts also authorities may send children to industrial schools.

Thus (5) by the Prevention of Crime Act (34 & 35 Vict. c. 112), s. 14, any children of a woman convicted of crime, or against whom a previous conviction of a crime is proved, may be sent to an industrial school by a magistrate, under the Industrial Schools Act, if they are under 14 years of age, and under her control and care at the time of her conviction for the last of such crimes, and if they have no visible means of subsistence, or are without proper guardianship.

(6) Children may also be sent to industrial schools on nonattendance orders under the Education Act of 1870.

It is not necessary that the school to which the child is sent should be within the jurisdiction of the justices or magistrate that make the order.

The order must specify the time for which the child is to be detained at the school; but it cannot extend beyond the time when the child reaches the age of 16. A school conducted in accordance with the child's religious persuasion, which is entered on the order, must be chosen. If such a school is not chosen, the 'parent, stepparent, guardian,' or if there be none of these, the god-parent or nearest adult relative,' may object, and upon proof being forthcoming in regard to the child's religious persuasion, the child may then be sent to another school. The application to the magistrate must, however, be made either before the child has been sent to a certified industrial school, or within thirty days of his arrival at such a school. The applicant must also show that the managers of the school he names are willing to receive the child.

At the school the child has religious instruction from a minister of his own persuasion.

Pending inquiry or the choice of a home, the magistrate may order that the child be detained for not more than seven days in the workhouse of the Union where he was found a resident. The expense of conveyance to the school is defrayed by the police autho

rities.

At the school the managers may arrange that the child be lodged to industrial at the dwelling of his parent or of any trustworthy or respectable person, while they teach, train, clothe, and feed him as if he were in the school itself. If they do this, they must report it to the Secretary of State. After 18 months of the detention they may allow him to lodge with any trustworthy or respectable person to whom they give a license for this purpose. This license must be renewed every three months. A child 'placed out on license' may

be apprenticed, though the period of detention may not have expired. To be apprenticed he must have conducted himself well during his absence from the school.

The offences of a child punishable by law while he is liable to Discipline of be detained at an industrial school, and whether he be lodging at the school or not, are these:

(1) If, being apparently above 10 years of age, he wilfully neglects and wilfully refuses to conform to the rules of the school, he may on summary conviction be imprisoned for not less than 14 days and not more than three months, with or without hard labour; and he may subsequently be sent to a certified reformatory school.

(2) If he escapes from school or neglects to attend thereat, he may be apprehended without warrant, brought before a magistrate, and sent, at the expense of the school managers, to be detained at the school until his time expires.

(3) Should the child convicted of this offence be apparently above 10 years of age, he may, instead of being sent back to school, be punished as above (1).

children at industrial schools.

payments.

For the custody and maintenance of children, grants are made Parents' from the Treasury. In the case of children sent on the application of their parents, step-parents, or guardians the Government grant cannot exceed 2s. per head per week. The parents are liable, if of sufficient ability, to pay 5s. a week; and if this sum is not paid, on the complaint of the Inspector of Industrial Schools, his agent or a constable acting on his directions, the magistrate may require its payment, or that of any less sum which he may think fit, to the inspector or his agent, for a specific time or until further order. When the amount of the payment ordered exceeds the amount paid in respect of any child by the Treasury, the balance is paid to the school managers.

A person cannot be detained in a certified industrial school beyond the age of 16, except with his own consent in writing. The Secretary of State may order the transfer of a child from one industrial school to another.

XLIV.-REFORMATORY SCHOOLS.

Conditions

of admission

tory schools.

The conditions of admission to reformatory schools are these:— The offender must be, in the opinion of the magistrate before whom to reformahe is charged, less than 16 years of age. He must have been convicted of an offence punishable with penal servitude or imprisonment. He may then be sentenced to imprisonment for ten days or longer, and subsequently sent to a reformatory school for as many as five and not less than two years.

A child of less than 10 years of age cannot be sent to a reformatory unless he has been previously charged with an offence punishable with penal servitude and imprisonment, or sentenced by a