mittee, a good many destitute children had to be maintained outside. This inconvenience, however, was remedied by the opening of the Industrial School at Look-out Point, whereby the Benevolent Institution was freed from the onus of caring for young people committed by magistrates. In 1873 it was proposed by a number of ladies that a Foundling Department (presumably for illegitimates) should be formed in connection with the Institution, but the overture met with no favour, and was wisely rejected. Although the poor destitute and orphan children who found a home in the Institution were not embraced in the benevolent aims of its originators, the benefits conferred upon them were, and are, incalculable, and cannot be fully known. All needful provision was made for their proper training for lives of usefulness. In a thoroughly equipped school, with duly qualified teachers, under the supervision of, in the first instance, Mr. (now Dr.) Hislop, and latterly of the Otago Education Board's Inspectors, good secular instruction was imparted; and as the children advanced in years, they were hired out to service, and until they reached manhood and womanhood a kindly control and care for their well-being in all respects were, as far as possible, maintained over them. In the fourteenth year of the Institution there were 25 lads and 13 girls out at service, while in addition, 9 boys and 12 girls had, in the same year, been adopted by respectable families. These numbers respectively have since then been largely added to.
At first, comparatively few persons required assistance from the Institution, but with marked variations their number rapidly grew, by far the largest proportion being children. The preponderance of children is, of course, explained by the fact that as a rule families left destitute, through the illness or death or desertion of the breadwinnners, were ministered to. In the third year the total number of individuals was 592 (27 men, 133 women, and 432 children), but in the sixth year it fell to 456, inclusive of inmates of the Asylum. In the following year the number (out-door and in-door) rose to 728, and increased to 1,171 in the ninth year. Two years later there was a fall to 788, but in the next year the number swelled enormously, to 1,730—more than double. In the fifteenth year there was another fall—to 1422—but in the year following the total rose to 1,551, and from
