Mr. Beck, Officer in Charge of the Special Schools under the Education Department, cited illustrative cases, one of which may be thus stated: "Two feeble-minded parents in New Zealand have had up to the present time ten degenerate children, all of whom are a lifelong burden on the State. Taking the case of these children, and assessing the cost to the State of maintaining them, the total amount for this family will not be less than £16,000." The Committee are of opinion that supervision of mentally defective children and adolescents is an important factor in lessening venereal disease, and urge the Government as soon as possible to adopt a system of registration and classification of mental defectives, and of segregation where necessary, either in mental hospitals or in special institutions where these defectives may be suitably taught, and, where possible, usefully employed to defray the cost of their maintenance. PART IV.--SUMMARY OF CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS. SECTION 1.--CONCLUSIONS. Following are some of the conclusions drawn from the evidence by the Committee:-- There is very general ignorance among the public on the subject of venereal disease, and this has stood in the way of its being grappled with effectively. Syphilis not only causes loss of life directly, but many deaths ascribed to other causes in the Registrar-General's returns are due to the after-effects of this disease. It is responsible for many still-births and abortions, and its evil effects are seen in such children as survive. These effects may persist until the third generation. Gonorrhœa, popularly, but quite erroneously, supposed to be a comparatively mild complaint, is regarded by medical men as being as serious a disease as syphilis. It is difficult to cure, especially in women, unless properly treated at the outset. It is a great cause of sterility in both sexes. Owing to the absence of accurate statistics it is impossible to make comparisons between New Zealand and other countries as regards the prevalence of venereal disease, or to say whether it is increasing or decreasing in this country. There are in New Zealand no fewer than 3,031 persons being treated by registered medical practitioners for venereal disease in some form, or for the effects thereof--1 person in every 428 of our population. At the clinics since their establishment 3,634 patients have been treated--3,038 males, 596 females. An interesting calculation as to the prevalence of syphilis in New Zealand has been made by Dr. Hay, Inspector-General of Mental Hospitals. Working on what is known as Fournier's Index--the relation of the number of cases of dementia paralytica existing at any one time to the number of concurrent syphilitic infectious--he computes the number of persons in New Zealand now who have or have had syphilis to be 33,000, or 1 to every 38 of the population.