The industrial schools now in operation, the details of the
inspection of which will be found in table VII., appended to this
report, are eight in number, and, as has been already pointed out,
have been carried on, some of them since 1884 at the cost of the
government, and with a large aggregate annual expenditure. The total
amount expended upon those in operation was $134,635.98 in 1905–6.
The original idea seems to have been to have them fairly convenient
to the railway, and yet at points about which there would be a group
of reserves, and from which their pupils were to be drawn.
As has been already statistically pointed out, there has been a very
notable falling off in the number of pupils since 1901, and this
tendency seems rather to increase than diminish. The reasons seem
chiefly to be:--