Class 2.- Persons convicted of minor offences are imprisoned either in county jails or in houses of correction established in connection with the various county almshouses of the state. On Jan. 1, 1902, there were 260 prisoners in jails and houses of correction, 242 men and 18 women.

Class 3.- All minors under the age of seventeen years convicted of an offence punishable by imprisonment other than for life are committed to the State Industrial School at Manchester. On Jan. 1, 1902, there were 140 at this school, 121 boys and 19 girls.

B. GROUP OF DESTITUTES.

Class 1. The aged poor are generally supported at the county almshouses, but in some instances the counties grant aid for their support either in homes for the aged or in private families. On Jan. 1, 1902, there were at the ten county farms 906 paupers, 503 men and 403 women.

Class 2. Dependent Children.— The law in New Hampshire provides for the removal of all normal children between the ages of three and fifteen years from county almshouses within sixty days after their admission. They are placed either in private families or in orphans' homes. On Jan. 1, 1902, there were 474 dependent children, 263 boys and 211 girls. 117 were placed in private homes, 287 in institutions, and 70 in almshouses. The children detained in almshouses were nearly all under three years of age or feebleminded.

Class 3. The Sick and Injured Poor. Are provided for in the hospitals at the county almshouses, but cases requiring special medical treatment are sent to the various hospitals in the state.

C. GROUP OF DEFECTIVES.

Class 1. Blind Children. The sum of $4,000 is appropriated annually for the education of the dependent blind children. As there is no school for the blind in New Hampshire, these children are sent to schools in other states. 13 are now supported at the Massachusetts School for the Blind, 6 girls and 7 boys.

Class 2. Deaf-mutes. The sum of $5,000 is appropriated annually for the education of the deaf-mutes, and these children are also sent to schools in other states, there being no school for the

deaf in New Hampshire. 21 children, 15 boys and 6 girls, are thus supported outside the state.

Class 3. The Insane. The state appropriates annually the sum of $16,000 for the remedial treatment of indigent insane at the New Hampshire State Hospital. The chronic insane dependent upon charity for their support are cared for generally by the counties in asylums at the county almshouses, but two of the counties at the present time are supporting their indigent insane at the New Hampshire State Hospital. Upon Jan. 1, 1902, there were 151 indigent insane in the State Hospital, 86 women and 65 men. In the county almshouses the total number of insane was 265, 105 men and 160 women, making a total of 416 indigent insane in the state. In addition to this number there were also 321 paying inmates at the State Hospital, making the total number of insane in the state 737, 335 men, 402 women.

NEW JERSEY.

WILLIAM H. ALLEN, JERSEY CITY, STATE CORRESPONDING SECRETARY.

The principal forward step to be recorded in our charities during the past year is the First State Conference of Charities and Corrections held in February. Trenton was chosen as the meeting place, both because of its central location and also because it is the capital. The press of the state took special interest in the conference, because it was to be held at the State House in the same chambers where at the time the legislators were considering various measures for the benefit of charitable and correctional work. About sixty towns and cities were represented, and practically every department of philanthropy, private and public, state, county, and municipal. The outof-town average attendance was over one hundred for the three sessions.

The public service rendered by the conference was recognized by the legislature, when it voted to print as a state document the proceedings. This volume contains about fifty addresses, one hundred and forty-eight pages. The president of the conference for the next year is Mrs. E. E. Williamson, to whose special interest and enthusiasm the origin and the success of the conference were due. Its vice-presidents are ex-Governor Voorhees, Rev. Amory H. Bradford, Mrs. Stewart Hartshorn, president of the State Legal Aid Associa

tion and the State Federation of Woman's Clubs, Right Rev. John H. McFaul, Bishop of Trenton, and Charlton T. Lewis, president of the State Charities Aid Association and well-known to the National Conference of Charities and Correction. The executive committee consists of twelve persons prominent in charitable work in state and local societies or institutions.

Two committees were appointed for the ensuing year to carry on educational work. The first is to disseminate information as to the care of consumptives, with special reference to the new sanatorium, whose purpose is mainly educational. The second committee is to consider and advertise means of reducing and treating juvenile delinquency, and will probably devote particular attention to our probation and school laws and needed amendments.

The by-laws provide that the conference shall not formulate any platform nor adopt resolutions or memorials having a like effect. All who have an active interest in the private relief or correctional work in New Jersey are invited to enroll themselves as members. No other tests of membership shall be applied and no membership fee charged, the expenses being met by voluntary contributions. The executive committee has decided to hold the next conference at the same place, during the second week in February, 1903.

The most important measure passed by the state legislature was that providing for a state sanatorium for consumptives, the appropriation committee making the bill effective by granting $50,000 for purchase of a site and erection of building. It is the intention of the state to make this hospital a training school for persons afflicted with consumption.

The last legislature was quite liberal and broad minded in its legislation and its appropriations. The Rahway Reformatory and State Village for Epileptics received large appropriations for improvements and maintenance; while the State Institution for Feeble-minded Women and Girls received a modest sum for the extension of one building, introduction of drains, etc. This last institution is managed with an economy that seems impossible when one sees the excellent accommodations and unsurpassed discipline. The Training School for Feeble-minded Boys and Girls is the only private institution in the state which receives state funds; but the appropriations made for this institution are for board only, the permanent improvements, repairs, etc., being met by private donation. The annual re

port of this institution is admirable, for it sets forth not only the method of conducting the school, but at the same time shows results in detail.

There are still many epileptics at both feeble-minded schools, but it is the intention of the legislature to make it possible for the State Village for Epileptics to take all of the state's epileptics. There is, however, a disposition on the part of the institution to reject the feeble-minded epileptic; while the management of the state institution feel that the new village should relieve the former of the charges which only obstruct the work for the trainable feeble-minded. Here, again, authorities seem to differ, the private institution believing in retaining feeble-minded epileptic among the feeble-minded. is evidently a problem here which time will develop.

There

Assembly 183 " became notorious because of a tremendous paper or letter opposition aroused by the Children's Home Society to a bill holding the State Board of Children's Guardians responsible for all children committed to the almshouses of the state. The State Board won on the merits of the proposition that divided responsibility meant confusion. The Children's Home Society acquiesced in the decision of the governor and the legislature, and publicly renounced all desire to work in the field, which it had been their hope to 'exploit, until they should have all Protestant, able-bodied children from the almshouses.

Another event which should be recorded in the tomes of the National Conference of Charities and Correction is the publication by the State Charities Aid Association of a monthly, the New Jersey Review of Charities and Corrections. The purpose of this official organ is as follows:

1. To make known the condition of our charitable and penal institutions, public and private, and that of the classes for whose benefit these institutions are maintained.

2. To call attention to important books and articles dealing with social problems.

3. To record important events, both within and without our State, especially such advanced principles and approved methods as are found to promote efficiency in any branch of warfare against the forces that make for physical and moral degeneracy.

Already there are many signs that this publication is most effective in organizing and expressing opinion throughout the state. It looks

at all problems avowedly from the Jersey point of view, and does not hesitate to make purely local applications. Perhaps its greatest service will be the stimulation of thought and the encouragement of its expression. One thousand copies are regularly issued, although twice extra editions of two thousand copies have been distributed.

The resignation of Superintendent Heg from Rahway Reformatory has been not only a great disappointment, but there is danger that it has given a setback to merit appointments. It had seemed certain that we had turned our backs upon political favoritism or sectional bigotry in the naming of superintendents for state institutions, the Rahway Commission having successfully weathered the gale of petty opposition to the appointment of a foreigner to the superintendency. But months of deliberation have developed, so far as the public knows, no promising candidate of experience, and special training. There is still hope, however, that our commission will remember the quiet that followed the former flurry over the appointment of the best man for the place, and choose regardless of the geographical location of the applicant.

NEW MEXICO.

MRS. M. J. BORDEN, ALBUQUERQUE, STATE CORRESPONDING SECRETARY.

There has been no advance or change in legislation concerning the subject of Charities and Corrections in the territory of New Mexico. Every thing along that line seems to remain at a dead standstill. Consequently, my last report will cover the field. Just what 1903 legislature may be aroused to do remains to be demonstrated.

NEW YORK.

R. W. HEBBERD, ALBANY, STATE CORRESPONDING SECRETARY.

LEGISLATION.

The most important legislation in the field of charities enacted by the legislature of 1902 was the passage of a statute (Chapter 26 of the Laws of 1902) amending the Lunacy Law by abolishing the boards of managers of the state hospitals for the insane and placing the control and management of the hospitals in the hands of the