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their duties. For the uniform courtesy and kindness with which I have been everywhere received by them I have to express my cordial acknowdedgments. Ido not know a class of persons who need sympathy more than teachers, especially Board teachers. For myself, it is a very unpleasant thing to have to report unfavourably upon a good teacher, as far as results are concerned; but I should consider myself unworthy of your confidence if I did not perform the disagreeable as well as the pleasant part of my work with equal impartiality. Acknowledgments.—ln conclusion, I have to express my grateful sense of the courtesy and kindness with which you and the Board have treated me during the past year. I have also to express my gratitude to the members of the different School Committees for the considerate help they have rendered me, and I am bound to express my sense of the cordiality and confidence with which I have been everywhere and always received by the children in my district. I have, &c, R. Foulis, F.E.1.5., W. H. Watt, Esq., Chairman, Education Board, Wanganui. Inspector of Schools.

N.B. —Acting upon your suggestion, I would very earnestly call the attention of School Committees, teachers, and parents generally, to the wide margin that exists between the number of children belonging to our schools and the number in average attendance. On the day of examination the number on the books was 3,890, while the average attendance for the year was only 2,577. School Committees and teachers can do much to narrow this margin, by exercising tho compulsory power possessed for enforcing regular attendance. Irregularity of attendance is, in many of our schools, a very serious drawback and a great discouragement to earnest teachers. By the exercise of earnest effort, on the part of all concerned, to improve the average, the capitation grant would be augmented, and thereby the revenue of the Board.

' WELLINGTON. Sic,— Education Office, 31st March, 1880. I have the honor to lay before you my sixth annual report on the state of primary education, and on the working condition of the Board schools, in the Wellington District. Introduction. —I purpose in this report to give a less detailed statement than in former years of the internal working of the several schools, and of other technical matters in connection with them; and to touch upon such questions as naturally would be suggested in an intelligent inquiry into the state of education within the district. The ground, I think, will be covered by the following questions :Is the district fairly supplied with schools ? Are the schools well attended ? Is sufficient accommodation provided? Is the instruction sufficient, useful, and sound ? Do any schools continue year after year in an unsatisfactory condition ? Are the teachers competent, faithful, and respected in their office ? Are the school properties suitable and locally cared for ? Are the colonial standards likely to prove workable? Is the pupil-teacher system working satisfactorily ? And, lastly, is there good reason for believing that the present cost of education is money well spent ? It would be impossible for me to do this programme justice in the space within which my efforts must be confined ; but I shall endeavour to put before your Board as much information as I can in the compass of this report. Where space does not allow me to go more into particulars you will permit me to draw tacitly upon a large practical experience for conclusions. In the early part of the year I paid a visit of inspection only to all the schools except two, which are generally inaccessible at that time of the year. I have since examined them all without exception, the examinations concluding on the 10th instant. Schools Established. —The Wellington Education District includes the Counties of Wairarapa East, Wairarapa West, and the Hutt; and is that portion of the North Island lying east of the Tararua ranges, and south of a line drawn from the Manawatu Gorge to the East Coast at about right angles to the western boundary. One-half the children attending Board schools are resident in the city of Wellington. Leading from the city are two main roads—one going for about 130 miles through the Wairarapa Plain, and through the entire district northwards; and the other is the great western road, running for 35 miles, and leaving the district at the foot of the Paikakariki. Along these two main lines of road school centres are found for two-thirds of the remaining children in the district. The rest of the population is met with in the back country of Wellington City, in the smaller valleys which here and there diverge from the main routes, on the flanks of the Wairarapa Plain, and in the up-country clearings east of the Ruamahunga. In the city of Wellington 8 large schools are established —1 for boys only, 1 for girls only, 2 for infants only, and 3 for hoys and girls mixed. On the main lines of road 18 schools are established, consisting of 8 district-town schools and 10 country schools. The up-country and outlying districts support 17 schools, 9of them being very small. There are altogether 43 schools open, being an increase of 6on my last return. Seven new schools were opened during the year, and 2 half-time schools amalgamated. The 43 schools may be thus classed: Eight city schools, each on an average attended by 345 children ; 8 district town schools, each on an average attended by 201 children; 18 country schools, each on an average attended by 51 childen ; 9 rural schools, each ou an average attended by 26 children. All the 35 schools outside the city of Wellington are mixed; and, besides these State schools, there are no others, except one or two very small private-venture schools. In the city of Wellington, besides the College, which is the only public institution in this education district principally giving secondary education, there are a few small private-venture schools and two, Roman Catholic schools self-supporting. We have now to consider whether the schools at presoni, established are sufficient for the wants of the district. Eight large schools are established in the city of Wellington. The buildings of six of them are completed, and two others are about to be built.. In, addition to the eight schools, when completed, J. think two more will be required, making ten altogether ■ —an infant school in Ghuznee Street, on the land now leased as a temporary mixed school, and a largemixed school for hoys, in a district not yet constituted, at or near the junction of Adelaide Road audi Courtenay Place. The eight district-town schools meet the wants of the larger centres of population in the country. The schools at the Lower Hutt and Masterton are becoming crowded; and, as settle2—H. Il