152 Timehri. 



month that some at least of the members of a Committee appointed to 

 look after the interests of the inmates on discharge resented the reference. 

 I should be sorry to believe that any harm could accrue as no reflec- 

 tion was intended on the work of the Committee nor on that of the 

 enthusiastic and worthy Superintendent of Onderneeming, Mr. Sydney 

 Bayley. The work of reformation in any form has my heartiest 

 sympathy. That it is a thankless and almost hopeless task under 

 present local conditions is an individual opinion. It happens, however, to 

 be shared by more than one of the Committee, who, I presume, only 

 differ from me as to the advisability of openly saying so. In justice to 

 the critics of the article I think it only fair to quote the official report 

 for 1911-1912 by Professor Harrison on this subject : — - 



" An enquiry has recently been made as to the number of discharged 

 inmates that after leaving the institution have relapsed in their behaviour 

 as judged by the records of convictions before the magistrates. Out of 

 one hundred lads who left the School between November, 1907, and 

 August 1912, fifteen have subsequently committed themselves. This 

 indicates that 85 per cent, of the discharged inmates have not committed 

 themselves and it is a fair inference that the training given to those lads 

 at Onderneeming has been of benefit to them and to the community at 

 large." 



If any considerable proportion of the 85 per cent, who have kept out 

 of gaol for periods ranging from one to neai'ly five years can produce 

 good conduct reports from employers for those periods I t-hould be glad 

 to reconsider my opinion. Perhaps the next Onderneeming report will 

 supply this information as the employers have not appeared in print. For 

 1912-13 the record is still better. Of fifteen boys released only one went 

 to prison during the year. A second was transferred as " apparently 

 irreclaimable whose influence was felt to be harmful to the other 

 inmates." It is satisfactory to note that the effect of the corrupt influ- 

 ence of vicious boys on each other is not ignored. 



At the meeting in question it was proposed to alter the name of the 

 Committee as the Borstal Institute had been shut down as a failure. 

 Evidently the criticism that it was a useless and costly concession to 

 that sentimental philanthropy which is producing its own Nemesis in 

 the vast increase of crime in England, has been found to be borne out by 

 the facts. 



The digression concluded : — 



" Laws and regulations, the enforcement of which we resent, have 

 come to be regarded by our people as progress. Quid leges sine moribus ? 

 Surgeon General Godfrey works hard and does his manful part, but he 

 and his staff are as a voice crying in the wilderness. Our public health 

 system is on paper, our infant mortality appalling, our population station- 

 ary and but for immigration declining, and the moral condition of the 



