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handicapped that they cannot be expected to run far into the domain of secondary education. At Tokomairiro a large amount of work has been done ; but here several of the scholars had before passed the Sixth Standard, and were therefore free to devote all their time and attention to the higher branches. In none of the other High Schools was there any pupil in this position, and that is the reason why the work at these is so much less advanced. The headmasters have, one and all, carried the work on with praiseworthy enthusiasm. I have, &c, Donald Peteie, M.A., The Secretary to the Education Board, Otago. Inspector of Schools.

2. Mr. Tatloe's Repoet. Sic,— Dunedin, 31st March, 1880. I have the honor to submit my report for the year ended the 31st December, 1879. During the first part of the year I was chiefly occupied in making visits of inspection to 02 schools. For three months I was engaged assisting Mr. Petrie in the examination of the larger schools. The "remainder of my time was employed with office work, and in examining 39 schools, situated principally in the Peninsula, Taieri, Tokomairiro, and Tuapeka Districts. The summaries of the results connected with the examination of these 39 schools have been tabulated along with those examined by Mr. Petrie, and will be referred to by him. Appended to this report is a table giving a detailed statement for each of the schools I examined unaided, under the following heads :■ —" School," " Standard," " Presented," " Passed," " Failed," " Average Age," " Percentage of Passes." It will he observed that the percentage of passes to the number presented ranges from 23 to 100. Six schools show a percentage of 90 and over ; fifteen, from 70 to 90; twelve, from 50 to 70; and six below 50. The reasons of the great disparity in these results call for some notice. It is scarcely necessary to state that the highest results are the outcome of intelligent teaching, thorough work, skilful management, and a cautiousness, sometimes excessive as shown by the average ages, which guarded against presenting pupils in standards the work of which they were considered not thoroughly able to undertake. Of the six schools showing a percentage of passes less than 50, I attribute the failure in the result of three of them partly to certain unfavourable circumstances connected with them, and to the fact that the instruction given was not regulated by the standards of the syllabus. In the case of the other three, I believe failure arose almost entirely from incapacity to teach and manage on the part of their teachers. In comparing the average ages of the pupils presented in the standards a wide difference will be found to exist between schools. This difference is most noticeable in the case of the First Standard, where the age ranges from seven years one month to ten years five months. Of the 39 schools referred to here, 6 have, for the First Standard, an average age of eight years and under, and 4 have an average age of ten years and over. The latter have, therefore, an advantage over the former of two years at least in the age of the children. In forming a comparative estimate of the character of the work done 'in the schools from an examination of the results here shown, this difference of age has to be taken into account. The conclusion to be drawn, then, is that the school with the lowest average age and the highest percentage of passes in the same standards is the most efficient, and that a high average age and alow percentage of passes indicates a school of the opposite character. The other schools will find a place between these two extremes, and thus have their position in the scale of efficiency approximately determined. This conclusion should not be drawn too rigidly, as there are modifying circumstances connected with schools which sometimes interfere with it; nevertheless, as a broad generalization it is not very far from being correct. Two circumstances, which should not affect the schools to the same extent for next year as they did for the one just past, deserve to be noticed. The examination for the past year being the first under the new syllabus, a degree of uncertainty prevailed as to the manner in which it would be interpreted, and therefore in some quarters teachers, guided by extreme caution, and in order to err on the safe side, presented their classes lower than they might have done. In some instances the reverse was the case. Again, the advent of free education, and the consequent influx to the schools, especially in populous centres, of pupils whose education had been previously seriously neglected, had the effect of retarding the progress and impairing the efficiency of the schools, and of considerably raising the average age for the different classes. There is every reason to expect that in future the results will approach nearer to uniformity, and that the relation of age to standard will be more satisfactory. Discipline.—Much improvement has been effected in discipline during the past few years. The pupils have been generally trained to maintain a quiet and orderly behaviour both in and out of school, to observe a respectful attitude towards others, and, with some exceptions, to take an intelligent interest in their work. The exceptions refer to no less than 8 out of the 39 schools I examined, in which the discipline and training were defective in two most important particulars. The defects were a manifest lack of earnestness and interest in their work on the part of the pupils, and a dull, lifeless, unworkable kind of disposition wdiich prevented them from giving indications of being possessed of any but the smallest degree of intelligence. They would not move except at the expense of much time and strength, and then the result was most disappointing. A teacher who is devoid of tact and power to stir up earnestness in work and a love of study in his pupils, and who can discover no avenue to or means to rouse their slumbering intelligence, fails to a very serious extent in fulfilling the purposes of his profession. There is no doubt that home and local influences tend to neutralize to some extent those of the teacher, but he ought not to he wholly overcome by them. Instet/ction. —Satisfactory progress continues to be made in respect of instruction, both in amount and method. Reading, spelling, and writing are the subjects most efficiently taught. Grammar comes next, and then arithmetic. The really deficient subjects are geography and history. In most of the schools the latter subject had been but recently introduced, and in some it had not been introduced at all at the time of examination. In such cases a series of failures had to be recorded under the head of history. Geography is such a wide aud indefinite subject that a considerable number of failures is not very surprising. Reading has been improved in respect of distinctness and 6—H. li.