Of those in almshouses reported as liable to labor,. 197

CORRESPONDENCE, PERSONS EMPLOYED, EXPENSES. The correspondence has been six thousand four hundred thirty-nine (6,439) communications received; five thousand three hundred sixteen (5,316) written.

There have been employed throughout the year eight persons beside the Agent.

The correspondence, the records and copying of the Agency have fully employed Mr. Henry A. Smith, Mrs. Jennie L. Thomas and Miss Minnie B. Hobbs during the year. Their services have been very acceptable.

The above statement gives the cost of the Agency to the State, and the foregoing pages show some of its accomplishments and its worth to those with whom it deals. It has a value other than to the people themselves, and, as a means of temporal salvation, one that intimately concerns the treasury of the State. Although its value as a means of saving children from lives of vice and dependence is of paramount consideration, there is economy and money in such saving,its direct and immediate saving of money to the Commonwealth may well be taken into account in estimating its worth. The following statement will show that more than twice the cost of the Agency to the State is saved by its work.

The report of the Board of State Charities for 1869-70, page xxviii, shows the average length of time juveniles remain in State institutions, witn the average weekly cost of maintenance, upon the basis of the last five years, as follows, viz. :

In 1870-71 the Visiting Agent took one hundred twentyeight (128) children, who would have been disposed of as follows, viz. :

These remaining in the public institutions the average length of time, as per above table, the cost of their commitments and maintenance would have been,

$9,427 98

The average number of the children taken by the Visiting Agent and placed in the Primary School for the past two years may be called forty-two (42). The expense of these upon the basis of the same table, adding that of the two who have been committed to the reformatories, would be Deducting this from the amount above given, and it will show us a net saving, Less the amount paid out for "putting out, returning and care of children,"

33,368 46

582 00

$32,786 46

Recapitulation.

Number in institutions September 30, 1869, in institutions September 30, 1870, in institutions September 30, 1871,

1,008

952

902

Returned from places and escaped, 1870, from places and escaped, 1871,

130

177

REPORT OF THE STATE VISITING AGENT.

Released on probation or discharged, 1871, . on indenture, trial or wages, 1871,

Cases before courts, 1871,

Children subject to visitation August 1, 1869, subject to visitation September 30, 1870, subject to visitation September 30, 1871,

Communications received, .

203

371

1,463

456

1,167

43

2,316

1,556

1,628

6.439

5,316

Cost of same in institutions would have been, . $42,796 34 Less the cost of those committed to institutions, $9,427.98, and the amount actually paid out, $582,

Total amount saved,

CONCLUSION.

10,009 98

. $32,786 46

In reading this Report it must be observed that the Agency has done a large amount of work during the year, that a good degree of success has attended its operations and that its results have been salutary and economical. By it benefit has come to many children and people, and money has been saved to the State, immediately and prospectively. The work of the Agency is in harmony with that of the various institutions of the State and the charitable and reformatory system of the Commonwealth.

It would be very advantageous, in carrying out the practice and policy of taking children from the courts and placing them in families, to have a place of temporary, detention for them at the command of this Agency, wherein the children taken for families could be better prepared to enter them, by processes of cleanliness and general preparation. The Primary School at Monson aids in this respect in cases of children.

CONCLUDING REMARKS.

intended for that section of the State. Something of this kind is wanted in Boston or vicinity.

I am of opinion, to repeat in substance the remarks in last year's report, that graduated indentures would be better than the fixed ones now made when a child is bound out. An arrangement by which the amount to be paid the child could be fixed at the beginning of each year, for the year, would be an improvement on the present method of fixing the amount at the beginning of the term of indenture for the whole time. Considerable discontent grows up in the last years of indenture on account of what seems to be insufficient pay, when compared with the amount that the boy could get if freed from indenture. The early years of the term, during which the indenture was costly to the master, are forgotten by the boy, and cannot be made to appear to him as an offset for the small amount to be paid by and by.

The pressing want in the State is reformatories for minors, both boys and girls, over sixteen years of age who have been convicted of offences. The School Ship is the only place known as a reformatory to which boys over sixteen years.can be sent, and there is none for girls above that age. The magistrates will not send juvenile offenders to houses of correction if they can avoid it. There are many minors convicted of offences above the ages which exclude from reformatories who might be successfully dealt with therein. An institution to which, offenders between the ages of fifteen and twenty could be sent and taught trades is greatly needed. It might be self-supporting, or nearly so, and therefore not costly to the State, and at the same time fitting the subjects of restraint with trades to go out again into the world, the possession of which would do very much towards keeping them in the path. of well-doing. Much of the juvenile offence arises from the lack of trades with those offenders old enough to work; oftentimes stealing is almost necessary to prevent the starvation of tradeless children, as they can only work in the ways of unskilled labor, which are always crowded and often closed, and therefore afford them but little opportunity for earning therein their daily bread, which they must have,