12 Environment and Efficiency 



my records are not in any sense " picked ones," but are taken 

 in the order in which they came, starting from a given date. 

 To this rule there had also to be exceptions. 



(a) Where, as in dozens of cases, the records had been 

 kept an insufficient time, I passed on. My minimum period 

 was four years. 



To this again I made exceptions in the case of (i) The North 

 of England Industrial School, from which I got, in all, eighty 

 records. These were so particularly well kept that I was anxious 

 to collect as many as possible, and the last ten or so have only 

 a three years' record up to the end of 1911. Most of these 

 were from boys settled in Canada, and the letter or report for 

 1912 had not yet arrived at the time of my inquiry. As in 

 the seventy other records which I had collected there was not 

 one really unsatisfactory case, it seemed fair to conclude that 

 when the fresh report arrived it would be found as satisfactory 

 as in previous years. 



(2) The X. Home for Boys. Several of these boys, though 

 starting work at fourteen or fifteen, continued to live in the 

 Home until eighteen years of age. One or two of the records, I 

 believe, are under the four years' minimum ; but I particularly 

 wished to include the information from this Home, as I con- 

 sider it valuable as illustrating the sort of work for which 

 boys of this class may be prepared. 



(b) Where, as in two of the Industrial Schools, some 

 children came from " respectable " homes, I omitted these 

 wherever known, and passed on to those whose previous 

 environment had been evidently unsatisfactory. 



I mentioned that I took four years for my minimum record. 

 The average record of the 200 cases of which I have the exact 

 dates extends over 8.1 years. 



Of the remaining ninety-five, I find I have not entered the 

 length of record most, if not all, of these being doubtful 

 cases. 



Ten of the 200 records have been kept for a period of 



