This survey investigates the reasons for the increasingly high proportion of Māori adolescents admitted to Kohitere through individual Child Welfare Division files. Kohitere was a national training institution at Levin, administered by the Child Welfare Division of the Education department. The study includes detailed statistics (by ethnicity) on the population of Kohitere in 1965 including: average age at admission, home situation and locality, average family, employment history, and criminal offence record.The report’s conclusion presents a profile for an average Māori adolescent delinquent as he presented at the time of admission to Kohitere. Much of this profile also applies to the ‘typical’ pre-admission European with the exception of his smaller family and the decreased likelihood of his being the eldest boy at home at the time. The report identifies a series of indicators for why higher admission rates for Māori, the most significant being ‘the tendency for Maori youngsters to be rejected by parents at a fairly early age and thrust into the peer and familial group relationships which may not provide for the emotional needs of the Individual’.