E.—4

1886. NEW ZEALAND.

EDUCATION: INSTITUTION FOR DEAF-MUTES. [In Continuation of E.-4, 1885.]

Presented to both Houses of the General Assembly by Command of His Excellency.

No. 1. Exteact from Ninth Annual Bepoet of the Ministee of Education. The advantages of this school are gradually becoming better known, and there is a corresponding increase in the number of pupils; the number at the end of the year was 37. As has been often stated, the principle and method of instruction are based upon the fact that the deaf are very rarely dumb ; the want of speech being the result not of defect in the organs of speech, but of want of hearing. The children are taught to speak with the mouth, and to perceive the articulate speech of their neighbours by observing the movements of the lips. There can be no doubt as to the great ability and energy of the Director, Mr. Van Asch, or as to the high value of the educational methods employed by him. He has three assistants. The lease of the premises occupied by the girls of the institution having recently expired, a lease has been taken of the property known as Sumner College. The accommodation is sufficient for the Director and his family, who formerly occupied a separate house, and for all the pupils except the older boys. These latter, with two masters, still reside in a separate cottage. The expenditure of the school for the year 1885 was £3,189 lis., made up as follows : Salaries, .£971 13s. 3d.; payment to the Director for board of pupils at £40 a year each, £1,703 ss. 4d.; rent, £340; travelling expenses, £79 19s. Bd.; contingencies, £94 12s. 9d. Many of the parents are quite unable to contribute to their children's maintenance at the school, and many others can pay only a part of the regulation fee, which is £40 a year. The recoveries from parents amounted to £344 7s. 6d. in the year. There are probably few who would grudge the expenditure of public money upon this specially interesting form of benevolence.

No. 2. Director's Heport. Sir, — Sumner, May, 1886. In accordance with annual usage I have the honour to lay hefore you, for your consideration, my report of the institution for the year 1885-86. A retrospective glance over the brief history of the school for deaf-mutes brings into view two prominent facts : (1) The prevalence of acute deafness over all parts of the colony; and (2) the comparatively rapid rate at which the young mutes are gathering round us for relief. There is documentary evidence to show that the institution opened with ten pupils at the beginning in 1880, that there was an increase of eleven new ones in 1881, of four in 1882, of eight in 1883, of five in 1881, and of six in 1885. I—E. 4.