H.—li.

20

as tests and aids to a reading lesson where new words are being acquired or old ones familiarized. If teachers generally would keep in mind the necessity of subjecting the dictation and spelling lessons to the reading lessons, and using them as tests only to find out whether the lesson has been received (and no lesson is given until it is received), I, for one, should not be under the necessity of chronicling the numberless errors in spelling during the examinations for standards for scholarships, and even for pupil-teachers. Arithmetic. —In several of the schools the arithmetic is well taught. As no children were tested beyond the requirements of Standard IV., the questions set were comparatively elementary; yet a great number of failures have been recorded. In all schools where mistresses have charge, the arithmetic was very weak. This was especially the case at Norsewood and Meanee, where hardly a child passed in the subject. Why teachers set ten, fifteen, and even twenty sums upon a blackboard, and expect children to work them, without having some definite object in view, I am at a loss to understand. When children have such examples set before them of working to kill time —for the answers cannot possibly be examined—it is not to be wondered at that they grow up careless and indifferent in other things besides arithmetic. History.—Of all subjects, history is the worst taught in our schools. There appears no marrow in the dead bones of history, at least children cannot find it, and teachers, with one or two worthy exceptions, do not attempt to seek it for them. I earnestly hope some modification will take place in the teaching of this subject. How is it we go to the unknown and work to the known, or to the abstract and attempt to work to the concrete ? Who can wonder that the study of history is so lifeless in our schools, when children are taken to Julius Caesar's invasions to obtain their first ideas of what history is ? If we would have history understood and appreciated by children, why not commence the study of the subject at our very doors ? Do not history and geography begin at home, and extend in a constantly-enlarging circle, the one into the unknown past, the other into the extended present ? Ido not blame teachers for the sad results : they are directed to their work in a left-handed manner, and who can wonder if the results are so unsatisfactory ? Geography.—No subject affords better opportunities of being taught in the concrete than geography. It is essentially a subject acquired by the aid of the perceptive faculties ; and yet I find but little intelligent teaching in our schools. In the upper classes of the Napier District School the subject is well taught, and fairly so at Havelock, Waipawa, Waipukurau, Taradale, and Gisborne; but nowhere else has it been my lot to realize the fact that children are being trained in the subject. I confess that many children examined by me could write down on their slates the names of half a dozen rivers in America, or even the principal capes of Africa, but where the rivers or capes are to bo found in these continents is out of the question. It is this system of cramming children with unobjective and unmeaning words that cramps the intellect and stifles that natural taste for inquiry which is the characteristic of all young children. There is no excuse in our schools for geography not being well taught. Maps and globes are to be found in every school, together with pictorial illustrations ; and relief globes and maps in others: but I wish it were possible for the Board to have a large outline map of New Zealand sketched on the floor in front of the desks of all the district schools. No orographical map could be used so effectively for training the intelligence of the children, and all difficulties wc-iiid. vanish in describing the situation of towns, lines of railroads, and such other points as are deemed necessary for children to know. Grammar. —My remarks upon history will apply equally well to grammar. Every time that I hear children repeat, parrot-like, the definitions of the parts of speech, I cannot help feeling that a cruel wrong has been perpetrated upon them. A definition is the resultant of a certain state of knowledge, and will vary in proportion to the knowledge possessed by those from whom the definition is asked; and yet if I ask, " What is a noun ?" I receive the answer nine times out of ten, " A noun is the name of a person, place, or thing, as John, London, book;" and for a pronoun, " A simple substitute for a noun." These are definitions given to children to be committed to memory on purpose to prepare for the grammar in Standard 111., but for my part I prefer to receive the children's own conceptions of nouns and pronouns however simply they may be stated. Extra Subjects.—ln addition to the ordinary subjects to which reference has just been made, most of the schools had taken up the optional subjects of singing and repetition, and in several instances elementary science. lam unable to say much in favour of the repetition. It was generally correctly said, but so lifeless and expressionless that I could not give much credit either to the teachers or children, except in the Hampden District School, where the boys in Standards 111. and IV. repeated "David's Lament on the Death of Absalom," in an admirable and effective manner. In a number of schools great progress has been made in singing. At the Matawhero, Napier, Waipawa, Taradale, and Woodville Schools, the singing is capitally taught, and fairly so at Ormond, Gisborne, and Wairoa. It was hardly to be expected that any extra subjects, except poetry and singing, would be attempted the first year; but at Woodville elementary mechanics had been prepared by the senior boys, and a few lessons on the "Laws of Health "at Gisborne. At both places the results were encouraging. Sewing.—Compared with last year, I find that there is an increase of 300 children in the numbers learning to sew in the district schools. The mistresses in several schools complained to me that they were unable to obtain sewing materials, but I am inclined to think the fault rests with themselves, judging from the excellent sewing which was shown at Woodville, Waipukurau, and Napier, where the mistresses take au interest in their work. It is only necessary to see the sewing specimens forwarded by the competitors for Captain Russell's sewing prizes to realize wdiat can be done even by young girls, if sewing mistresses have only the will to make the attempt. At my next annual examination I intend to implicitly follow Regulation 10, specifying the sewing in the different standards. Infant Schools. —And now a few words on behalf of our infants. lam pleased to find that the number of infants attending our district schools is rapidly increasing, and I only wish it were possible for the Education Board to provide a small room in every school, where they could be efficiently taught. If we desire to produce any permanent effects upon little children, it must be done when they are young, just as is done with plants and animals. In the larger towns, as at Napier and Gisborne, the infants' school has become a necessity. In these places a very fair beginning has already been made;