E.—l

X

If to the salaries of teachers are added the expenses of Boards at last year's rates (£8,100), the cost of inspection of schools and examination of pupil-teachers, also at last year's rates (£8,400), and grants to Committees and other incidental expenditure on schools (£21,500 last year), the sum is at least £251,000. On the other side may be set £243,000 for capitation at the rate paid in the first quarter of 1882, and (at last year's rates) £4,000 as a grant in aid of inspection, making a total of £247,000. (The income and expenditure for normal schools and for scholarships are excluded from both sides of this computation.) The result is a deficiency at the rate of not less than £4,000 a year. A continued increase of attendance at the rate of rather more than 700 a quarter for the first three quarters of 1882 would, however, add so much to the Boards' income as to carry them through the year, provided that the expenditure did not also increase. But the required increase can probably be obtained only by opening new schools, each rendering new expenditure necessary. The returns for the first quarter show an increase of about 1,800. But fifteen new schools were opened in that quarter, and it should be borne in mind that the two remaining quarters of the nine months are those which include all the months of winter: it is therefore by no means certain that the statutory capitation allowance will be adequate to the payment of all the current liabilities chargeable against it. In the last quarter of the year, when fine weather may be expected, and when the demands made by the opening of new schools will have risen to the maximum for the year, the grants will be made on the basis of the attendance for the worst winter quarter, and this renders it still more doubtful whether the resources of the Boards will be equal to the occasion, • If all the Boards were equally prepared for a struggle the case would be serious enough; but some of them are barely solvent. The Westland Board, which in five years has used £6,700 of extraordinary revenue for ordinary expenses of maintenance, begins the year, as it began the year 1877, with an overdraft of more than £1,000. It has, however, books and school appliances in stock to the estimated value of £2,175, a very large supply for less than 3,000 children. It will be seen by reference to Table J that several of the Boards are paying for the maintenance of schools, independently of office expenses and inspection, more than the capitation grant of £3 15s. In Auckland, Wellington, North Canterbury, and Otago this is explained by the fact that the cost of the training of teachers is included in the calculation; but in Westland, Hawke's Bay, and Southland, if more than the whole, or as much as the whole, of the capitation grant is expended on the schools there is nothing left to pay the expenses of the Boards' offices. It will be observed that the cost of maintenance in proportion to the number of pupils is less for 1881 than for the previous year in every district except Wellington, the difference for the whole colony being 3s. 9^d. The cost was diminished from £4 7s. Bd. in 1879 to £4 ss. 3^d. in 1880, and to £4 Is. 6d. in 1881, including the expenses of the Boards' offices and of inspection. The cost for each child on the school-rolls, taking as the basis of calculation the mean of the roll-numbers at the ends of the four quarters of the year, was £3 2s. BJd., which shows a reduction of 3s. Ofd. as compared with the cost in 1880, and of 4s. 3fd. as compared with the cost in 1879. All these calculations exclude the cost of school-buildings, which varies from year to year irregularly, being for 1881 at the rate of 18s. 3|;d\ for each child; for 1880 it Avas £117s. Bfd., and for the year before that, £3 3s. 2d. The expenditure for buildings is analysed in Table L, which shows also the increase for the year in the number of masters' residences, and the decrease in the number of schools carried on in rented buildings. The £75,000 of last year's building vote available for public schools (£lO,OOO as already stated being required for unpaid balances and for industrial and Native schools) was apportioned as follows: Auckland, £14,330; Taranaki, £1,942; Wanganui, £4,649; Wellington, £5,932; Hawke's Bay, £3,194; Marlborough, £1,252; Nelson, £3,413; North Canterbury, £13,969; South Canterbury, £3,300; Westland, £2,698; Otago, £15,731; Southland, £4,590. With the exception of £1,000 divided between Wanganui and Taranaki, to meet demands on account of lands recently occupied, the amount Avas distributed according to population. Nearly all the Boards agree in stating that the grants for buildings were quite inadequate to the wants of their districts. The Auckland and HaAvke's Bay Boards object to the principle of