H.—l

12

SUPPLEMENTARY. Although not required by the Act, it is considered advisable to furnish a brief supplementary report up to the present date. Payments to Boards. Although the Education Act did not come into full operation until January 1, 1878, yet the appropriations clearly require that the grants to Boards for the financial year beginning July 1, 1877, should he paid according to the aggregate average daily attendance within each education district for the same period, and that the receipts by the several Boards from rents and profits of education reserves should he deducted from the amounts due to them in respect of such attendance. In the appropriations the sum of £3 10s. is set down for each average attendance. This is obviously an inadvertence, for the Education Act authorizes the payment of £3 15s. The aggregate average daily attendance for the financial year is estimated in the appropriations at 40,000, but the actual attendance returned by the Boards is 44,161. The receipts from education reserves are estimated in the appropriations at £20,000 for the year, but the returns by the Boards show a sum of only £11,295 3s. 4d. Owing to these three causes —(1) the under-statement of the rates of payment ; (2) the under-estimate of the average attendance; and (3) the overestimate of the receipts from reserves —the amount voted for the year under the head " Grants to Boards " has proved quite insufficient to meet the claims of the several Boards. Another difficulty has attended the administration of the education vote, arising from the circumstance that, although Education Boards had received payments from Government ever since the abolition of the provinces at the close of 1870, no definite principle had been laid down for regulating such payments. It was for the first time provided by the legislation of 1877 that the ordinary grants to Boards as from July 1,1877, should be in proportion to the average daily attendance. But it was not till the end of January, 1878, nearly seven months after the financial year had begun, that tbe department could he organized; and it was then found, on a comparison of the attendance with the issues to the different Boards, that in several instances the payments were quite out of proportion to the amounts warranted by Statute. One Board had received, for the six months ended December 31, 1877, about £3,000 in excess of its claim for the entire year. Another Board, whose claim for the six months would be about £8,200, had received for that period payments amounting to £14,225. Largely as one or two of the Boards had been paid in excess of their claims under the Act, it was found impossible all at once to stop payment of the monthly accounts. This would not only have embarrassed the Boards, but it would have inflicted hardship upon the teachers and their families. In two instances, however, the monthly payments were discontinued some time before the close of the financial year. A circular, dated Eebruary 12th, was issued to Boards, requesting their attention to the provisions of the Education and the Appropriation Acts which regulate the payments of moneys, and urging upon them the absolute necessity of so regulating their expenditure as to keep it within their income as fixed by the Legislature. Copies of this and of other circulars in connection with the administration of the Education Act are hereunto appended. Appended to this report is a summary of the moneys voted for educational purposes and disbursed by this department during the financial year. It will be seen that the amount expended is £29,261 18s. Bd. in excess of tho vote for the Education Department, and £1,950 in excess of tho vote for school buildings. A further sum of about £19,230 will be needed to meet payments duo for tho past financial year.