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Certain cases in which illness or incapacity are alleged as reasons for non-attendance are now
sent up to the head office for more detailed examination, and during the six months in which this
practice has been followed (excluding children in special schools submitted with a view to transfer
to residential schools), 304 cases, almost all complicated by other circumstances, have been reported
on, with the following results, so far as it is possible to classify such divergent items:—
Deaf.
Blind.
Mentally Defective
and
Imbecile
and
Blind.
Elementary
School.
Invalid
and
Epileptics
Mentally
Defective
Imbecile.
Physically
Defective
High
Myopia.
Industrial
Schools.
Deaf.
Blind.
Boys 12 11 8 3 1 37 14 13 1 2 4 5
Girls 9 14 9 10 3 71 35 13 5 3 12 8
Total 21 25 17 13 4 108 49 26 6 5 16 13
Special legislation is provided by the Elementary Education (Blind and Deaf) Act, 1893, for
the education of these two classes. The powers given are wide. The definition of a blind or
deaf child is one which is too blind or too deaf to properly benefit by instruction in the ordinary
elementary school.
Blind.—There are nine schools for the instruction of children classed as Blind. Of these
seven are ordinary day classes and two are Residential institutions: Linden Lodge, for elder boys:
Elm Court, for elder girls; and Stormont House, for boys who are blind and mentally defective.
During my first year of work under the late School Board each blind child was examined
individually, and a note of its condition recorded. Fifty per cent. of the totally blind were
estimated to be due to infection and neglect of the eyes during the first week of life. More exact
records have shown that 40 per cent. are actually due to this; but the proportion is greater, as many
are passed over as doubtful cases. Since then it has been impossible for me to personally continue
this work, and Mr. Bishop Harman has undertaken it. We have thus an annual report made
after a detailed examination of each child under instruction as blind. This has been a matter of
great benefit, many children have been brought under hospital treatment, and what vision persists
has often been improved by glasses or operation. A few cases of trachoma have been detected and
removed, and each year in almost every class several children have been so improved that they
have been able to be transferred to the ordinary school.
No child is now allowed to remain long out of school on account of visual troubles without
being thoroughly examined. Till recently children with a temporary eye trouble remained out of
school sometimes for years if defect of vision persisted, and of the many children reported as unfit
for school owing to blindness and examined at the office during the past six months, 25 were
returned as "educationally blind," whilst 32 were returned as invalid, 16 had high myopia, and
34 with small scars on the cornea interfering with vision were returned to the ordinary elementary