[619] There was not much pretence of technical instruction in the earlier Orders. What was aimed at was putting the children to work, chosen for its utility, not for its instructiveness (_i.e._ digging rather than gardening, mending the shoes of the establishment rather than learning the art of shoemaking). In the Special Order to the Walsall and West Bromwich School District of 1st July 1871, it was laid down that the children might be employed (under certain circumstances, wholly employed) "upon works of industry." In an amending Special Order of 20th July 1893, the age was raised, but the phrase was retained. [620] Order of 30th January 1897 in Twenty-seventh Annual Report, 1897-8, pp. 5-8; _see_ for its effect Thirty-third Annual Report, 1903-4, p. 256. [621] General Order "prescribing attendance" as regards workhouse schools, 30th October 1877, in Seventh Annual Report, 1877-8, p. 204. [622] Circular Letter, 1st February 1897, in Twenty-seventh Annual Report, 1897-8, p. 5. [623] _Selections from the Correspondence of the Local Government Board_, vol. i. 1880, p. 224; _Local Government Chronicle_, 30th January 1904, p. 113. It may be noted that a Special Order of 30th April 1887 (not mentioned in the Annual Reports, or otherwise communicated to boards of guardians) enables the Forest Gate District School to allow a class of the elder girls to go out and buy their food, spending not more than 3s. 6d. a week each, and prepare it for their own consumption, so as to get some practical experience of ordinary life. By another Order of 5th August 1889, the children in this one school are allowed to buy their own outfits (up to £3 10s.). We do not find that the Central Authority has yet made these privileges general, nor extended them to any other indoor pauper children.[624] [624] By a General Order of 20th May 1881, corporal punishment is absolutely forbidden in Poor Law Schools as regards "any female child" of any age. This rule has not yet been made by the Board of Education for the schools attended by non-paupers nor by most local education authorities. On 1st April 1904, the responsibility for the inspection of the education of the Poor Law Schools, and of pauper children in certified schools, was transferred to the Board of Education thus reverting to the policy prior to 1863.[625] [625] Thirty-third Annual Report, 1903-4, p. 256. (v.) _Boarding-out_