of their children. The members of Criminal tribes so placed in Settlements total 12,637.

Over 12,000 men, women and children are now inmates of the eleven Criminal Tribes Settlements in this Presidency and the report for the period from 1st January 1922 to 31st March 1923 shows that steady progress has been made with the work of turning these people into useful citizens. At Sholapur, Gadag, Hubli and Gokak Falls work is available at spinning mills near the settlements. A comparison in one of the Sholapur mills of the positions in the mill held by the settlers with the position a few years ago revealed a welcome increase in the number who held the more skilled appointments. Those settlers who have been trained as carpenters have found work readily, but those trained as masons had some difficulty in getting work at Bijapur. Some have gone to Dharwar, others to Bhatgar and to Sholapur where they have found sufficient work. The settlers at Khanapur and Dandeli have found ample work in the forests and have again demonstrated their value as labour supplying organisations to the Forest Department. An encouraging fact is that friends of the settlers have joined the settlements to obtain the conveniences afforded by them and to earn their livelihood in the same way as the settlers. An interesting experiment, still in its initial stages, is being tried whereby suitable prisoners of any caste, who have served part of their sentence, may have the remainder of it remitted if they volunteer to spend it in Khanapur or Dandeli settlements. At Hubli the Bhat women are being trained to use their traditional types of embroidery on saleable articles. The resulting patterns are very effective.

HOUSING AND SANITATION

Most of the settlers are still housed in huts of their own construction. It is encouraging to notice, however, the improvement in the huts of many of the settlers, from ragged places not three feet high, to commodious and tidy huts affording sufficient accommodation for the needs of the family. Reformed settlers are allowed to live outside the settlement, and if, as is generally the case, they prefer to settle down in the vicinity of the settlement, they are given plots of land and advances to erect houses

on them. These plots are generally each about 1,500 square feet, so that they have ample space round the building they erect. The most important advance during the year in this direction has been at Hubli. There the freed settlers are building houses of unburnt brick and roofs of country tiles. Rs. 100 is the average loan given to them.

average

The healthy conditions under which the settlers live and the strict supervision which is exercised over the sanitation and amenities of the settlements are shown by the fact that the death rate in the settlements is 1913, very considerably lower than the average death rate throughout India. The average birth rate is 32 42 showing an excess of 13 29 of births over deaths for each 1,000 of population.

EDUCATION

Primary education is compulsory for all the children in the settlements who are between the ages of 5 and 12, and for halftimers in the mills as long as they are half-timers. This ensures the mill half-time children coming to school for half the day until they reach the age of 15. The figures for the number of children in the day schools are in some settlements surprisingly large compared with the population. The following statement shows the proportion :

MANUAL TRAINING

66

66

The most important advance in settlement work made during the period under review has been the development of manual training in the schools and its correlation with the apprenticeship system and night school work. Handwork from the kindergarten upwards has been made a special feature of most of the schools. For the older boys special attention is paid to drawing and to paper and card board work. By the time the boys are 11 years of age they are given one or two full afternoons a week in the manual training classes. At first," says Mr. Starte, the Criminal Tribes Settlement Officer, we followed the course taken from the Training Colleges. When, however, I was in England I was able to visit a number of manual training centres for the schools of poor children in large towns, and was impressed by the insistence laid upon the need of making the course interest-. ing to the boys, and upon allowing them to use their own initiative by variety of design, or by allowing them to work at articles useful in their home, even if such articles were not in the prescribed schedule. The course has accordingly been revised to allow for more initiative and to secure greater interest by the making of more homely articles than formerly. Another point insisted upon in some of the manual training centres' I visited, was the advisability of working in a variety of materials in order to maintain interest and to give a wider experience. To meet this need tin work has been introduced in some of the classes. The aim we have before us is that every boy who leaves school should have an opportunity of learning a definite trade. Many, of course, go into the mills where by industry, a satisfactory career is open to them now that the shortened hours of mill work make the life not too exacting upon their physique."

DECREASE IN CONVICTIONS

Lads apprenticed are trained, amongst other trades, in carpentry, masonry, tailoring, blacksmithy and weaving.

Dealing with the number of convictions, Mr. H. Starte points out that only one per cent. of the population was absconding during the year and that the number of convictions shows substantial decrease. "Nevertheless," he says, "the fact that