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information necessary for its guidance in determining the number of teachers to be allowed for any school, and the salary to which each teacher is entitled according to the Board's scale of staff and salary. They will also furnish the material for the Board's annual estimate of average daily attendance, upon which tho capitation allowances will be made, and upon which the expenditure for the year must necessarily be based. The return, as appears upon the face of it, is for the attendance of a quarter ; but the Board will be able from the returns of four quarters to compile annual statistics. Line 111. of the first quarter's return of any school, increased by the addition of line IV. from each of the returns of the same school for the three succeeding quarters, will give the total number of children who have attended the school during tho year. The average of line XI. for four quarters is the average attendance for tho year upon the strict calculation; and similarly the average of line XIV. for four quarters is the working average for the year. The columns for ages, and the statement of numbers receiving instruction in various subjects, when summarized by the several Boards, and collected into one statement for this department, will afford information for the annual Education Report, and also for the annual statistical returns of the Registrar-General. The columns for standards will be a useful guide to the Boards and their Inspectors. I am to recommend your Board to encourage, and even to enjoin, frequent and careful revision of each school roll. It is a mistaken view on the part of some teachers and Committees that the importance of their school is enhanced by statements of high numbers on the roll. The effect of an exaggerated representation of the number of children on the school roll is to make the average attendance appear disproportionately low, and to conceal the real state of a district in regard to the proportion of the children resident in it who are actually under instruction. It is of much importance to keep in mind that it is not the number of children nominally upon the school roll, but the actual average attendance, which regulates the allowances to a school in respect of class-room accommodation, staff, salaries, and other requisites. The information furnished by line XV. will prove of service in comparing the highest actual attendance with the number of names entered and kept on the roll. Even though your Board may not have hitherto required from each school a quarterly return of sufficient fulness, I am to request that you will be good enough even now to procure, in the prescribed form, returns for the quarter ending 31st March, and for the current quarter, not only that you may be enabled to prepare complete returns for the whole of the current school year, but that the monthly payments of grants to your Board may be regulated as hereinafter described. The summary for the March quarter you will be good enough to forward with the least possible delay. The summary for the current quarter should be received here not later than the 31st July. A suitable class register and a quarterly summary adapted to the form of return are now in the printer's hands, and I hope to be able to send your Board a supply for distribution amongst teachers before or about the beginning of the July quarter. The registers at present in use will no doubt enable returns to be made up with tolerable fulness and accuracy for the January and April quarters. In future, the monthly payments to Boards for each period of three months, beginning on the Ist of January, April, July, and October respectively, will be made strictly according to the actuallyascertained average daily attendance for the quarter immediately preceding. One month will be given to Boards for furnishing the quarterly returns to this office, and a provisional payment will therefore be made for tho first month in each quarter at the same rate as for the previous quarter, such payment being adjusted in the account for the second month, after the returns have come in. It will therefore be very necessary that the returns be received in this office not later than ono month from the end of the quarter, so as to enable the account for the second month to be made out and passed for payment without delay. It may be necessary for your Board to bring under the notice of the several School Committees the extreme necessity of attending to this matter, and of forwarding their returns to your office in proper time. JttHN Hislop. (Circular No. 8.) Education Department, Wellington, The Secretary to the Education Board, . 10th June, 1878. I am directed to request that your Board will be good enough to prepare and forward as soon as convenient an estimate of receipts and expenditure for the next financial year beginning Ist July, 1878, in accordance with section 39 of the Education Act. I am to furnish the following information for the guidance of your Board in the preparation of its estimate. In addition to the statutory grant of £3 15s. per head, Government intend to propose to Parliament the passing of the following special votes : — 1. A vote to enable them to make payment to Boards at the rate of 10s. per annum for every child in average daily attendance : such payment to be distributed by the Board amongst the School Committees for educational purposes. 2. A vote to enable them to make payment to Boards at the rate of Is. per head for every child in average daily attendance, for the establishment and maintenance of scholarships in accordance with section 51 of the Act. 3. A vote of £4,000 for distribution amongst the several Boards with a view to encourage and enable them to make provision for the efficient inspection of the schools under their control. Your Board's share of this proposed vote is £ . 4. A vote of £7,000 in aid of training institutions at Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch, and Dunedin, for the education and training of teachers for the schools of the colony, irrespective of education district boundaries. 5. A vote in aid of the erection, completion, enlargement, and furnishing of school buildings. I may point out that section 42 of the Act provides that " special fees for higher education" shall form part of the " Board Fund," and I may also request your Board's attention to sections 42 17—II. 1.