Scope and Methods of Investigation 1 5 



This was due (i) to the numerous exceptions to the rule of a 

 consecutive order, to which I have already referred ; and (2) 

 in the case of the Emigration Homes, where the cases are 

 kept on the Shannon File system, to the time required to hunt 

 through the records. They here included reports from em- 

 ployers, reports from the appointed visitor, letters from 

 employers, and letters from the children themselves. But 

 this completer information was often more satisfactory than 

 that given by the Industrial Schools, where simply the gist of 

 reports, letters, &c., was entered in the Disposal Book. In the 

 last Industrial Home investigated, however, I was myself able 

 to read through a pile of letters from old boys. 



In concluding this section I should mention that my inves- 

 tigations have dealt solely with the normal child, using the 

 word " normal " as opposed to the " mentally or physically 

 defective," classified as such. Both in the Emigration Homes 

 and in the Industrial Schools, the rule is to exclude the men- 

 tally defective ; and, where such cases crop up, the defect has 

 probably not been sufficiently advanced at the time of admis- 

 sion to be notifiable. 



