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present contrast is a remarkable one. The attractive appearance of your neat properties, the sight of children everywhere wending their way to school every morning, the consciousness that they are growing up with fair mental culture, and the presence of teachers in your midst who are watchful of your children's welfare, will, I am sure, bo fit rewards for the energy you have displayed in thus caring for them. I experience some difficulty in forming a judgment on the value of the work of the past year, and the schools themselves stand at a great disadvantage, owiug to the change of teachers which has taken place in four of your schools. It is not easy for an officer to estimate the work done in any school by any one teacher until two inspections have been made at a fair interval of time. This I have stated again and again. When a new teacher is in charge, the results of inspection are mainly impressions produced by tho management, method, and discipline, and, perhaps, by a few minor results. If the arithmetic and reading are good, it is often impossible to say whether the work has been done by the late or by the acting teacher, unless the work of the teacher is already known to the Inspector and the style of work is apparent. In my notice of each of the four schools in which a change of teachers has occurred, I here confine my remarks to the statement of a few facts or impressions which seemed to me likely to be of use to your Board. In my report of the schools at Carlyle and Kakaramoa, where there has been no change of masters, you will see that no such difficulty has presented itself, and that I have been able to arrive at an interesting comparative statement of the jjrogress made, and of the general character of the work of the schools. The number of children attending the schools under the Patea Board lias increased from 180 last year to 219 this year, and the number examined from 167 to 202. The school at Whenuakura has been opened during the year. The numerical increase in children who have passed Standard I. is 29, being 111 this year against 82 last year ; but the percentage of passes in Standard I. work, as reckoned in the respective numbers attending, remains about the same, being 49 per cent, last year and 50 per cent, this year. I must, however, ask your Board to consider this by no means an unsatisfactory result: first, because 50 per cent, is a high rate to maintain ; and, secondly, because the work of all the standards has been so much raised that I shall not feel disappointed as an officer if this year's average results do not on the whole throughout the county exceed those of last year. lam pleased to state, however, that Standard 11. work shows a considerable advance on that of the past year, the passes numbering 52 against 37 last j'car, and the relative increase being from 21 per cent, last year to 24 per cent, this year. Now the Standard IL work fairly represents what has been looked upon for many years as ail that can be expected in elementary schools, so that 1 consider the results here are very satisfactory. In Standard 111. work there has been very marked progress, although the work has been almost confined to two schools. There are now 1G scholars who have passed Standard 111., double the number of last year, IU of them being new passers as compared with G new passers last year. One candidate this year passed Standard IV. ; and this, with two others, all in the Carlyle School, who passed last } 7ear, and still remain at school, gives a total of three pupils who have reached the highest standard. Certificates have been forwarded for all the successful candidates in Standards 111. and IV. On looking through the table of results attached to this report, your Board cannot fail to notice how much tho generally satisfactory average result of this is due to tho exceedingly good work of one comparatively large school. It is evident that very creditable work is now being produced in schools which have the advantage of regular systematic teaching, and in which the pupils have steadily advanced in tho standards of examination. I shall hope to learn that the Hawera School has in time attained at least a standard of efficiency now actually reached at Carlyle. Prom the schools at Manutahi, Normanby, and Whenuakura not much could be looked for at present, as they have been opened only a short time, and the children had very little, if any, previous instruction. Better work might have been expected iv one or two cases, for it is quite astonishing to see how much is sometimes done by trained teachers under every disadvantage. This brings me to the consideration of what appears to me just now the all-important question of normal training, the one thing needful, above all others, at this stage in our educational progress, to render our schools more efficient. Even the best of our teachers would profit by some experience in a model school. The general public appear never to have realized the fact that it is one thing to be a scholar and another thing to be a teacher willing to manage half-a-dozen children, and another to be a master of method and a systematic controller of numbers. Perhaps the greatest danger with which education systems are threatened is likely to come from those who, being scholars themselves, are not practically sensible of the facts just laid down. A schoolmaster, to be of any value, must have acquired a knowledge of his profession—a knowledge which experience will increase but will not necessarily supply. No man can take up such work at will and succeed at once. In one or two former reports I have drawn attention to the fewness of the girls attending in proportion to tho boys. I notice now that the attendance of boys is double that of the girls at Kakaramea aud Hawera, but that the girls are increasing at Carlyle, although the proportion of boys to girls even there is as 3 to 2. In a preliminary report to your Board, made at the time of inspection, I suggested a plan for additional accommodation, with cap rooms and lavatories, for Hawera and Carlyle schools, and these suggestions, I trust, have been of use. The fitting up of gymnastic apparatus has, I believe, been decided upon by your Board. I recommend the construction of either a lean-to to the school, or of an open shed, for gymnastic exercises, which would also serve for shelter in wet weather. A better supply of books and slates for the infant classes is needed in all the schools. The infant children are too young to take good care of their own, and I think it would be well for each School Committee to provide them for school use only. I beg to call the attention of your teachers to the increased importance of keeping very neat and carefully-marked registers. In one or two schools some improvement could be desired in this matter. At least one secondary school will soon be required for tho district. I trust, when it is established, due provisions will be made for granting exhibitions from the primary schools. Such exhibitions form the best possible prizes for diligent pupils, and enable any clever boy to rise to eminence, thus creating