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of £88 18s. lOd. was received from Native reserves funds, and, when this is deducted, the Government expenditure for the year is £15,865 14s. 9d. The number of children in attendance at the end of the year was 2,462. Of this number, 218 were hali-caste, 432 European (or between European and halfcaste"), and the remaining 1,812 Maori (or between Maori and half-caste). There were 2,310 between five and fifteen years old, 1,300 of these being under ten; 98 were above fifteen, and 54 below five. The average attendance for the fourth quarter of the year was 1,932, and for the whole year 2,045. These numbers indicate a slight decline. The number of Government pupils at the boarding-schools was 62 in December, and there were 97 other pupils attending the schools : at St. Stephen's, Parnell, 16 Government pupils and 27 others ; at Te Aute, 10 Government pupils and 53 others; at Hukarere, 20 Government pupils and 17 others ; and at St. Joseph's, Napier, 16 Government pupils. The Native school inspection report contains copious information with respect to all the schools. The department continues to receive most important assistance from Mr. Bishop, Mr. Bush, and Mr. Booth, who act as District Superintendents; and thanks are due to Mr. Hammond, Begistrar of the Native Land Court, Auckland, and to Captain Preece, for many services rendered.

No. 2. The Inspectoe of Native Schools to the Inspectoe-Genekal of Schools. Sie, — Wellington, 21st January, 1890. In accordance with the terms of your standing instructions, I have the honour to send you my report on the condition of the Native schools of New Zealand during the year 1889. Ntjmb.ee of Schools. At the end of the year 1888 there were seventy-nine Native schools at work. In the course of the year 1889 one school was reopened and four were closed. During the year, therefore, or some portion of it, eighty schools have been in operation, and at the end of it seventy-six schools were open —viz., seventy village schools, two subsidised schools, and four boarding-schools. Changes: New Schools opened, Schools eeopened oe closed. No new school has been opened during 1889, but the school at Rangiahua (formerly called Upper Waihou) was reopened at the beginning of the year. The Native population of the valley is very considerable ; the hostility of some of the Maoris, and the apathy of others, caused by their submitting to the guidance of a Hanhau prophetess, had ceased; and a petition from the people of the district, Maoris and Europeans, showed that the desire to have the school restored was quite general. Under these circumstances, it was plainly advisable to give the school another trial. Of the four schools closed in 1889, Maungatapu, near Tauranga, was the most important. Established in 1882 under very favourable auspices, this school received, almost as soon as it was fully equipped for work, a crushing blow through a severe fever epidemic, which decimated the Natives and rendered the survivors unwilling to remain, or to allow their children to remain, in the neighbourhood of the school. With the aid of a half-time school at one of the outlying settlements Maungatapu was kept going for some time, but at last the attendance became so small that the school had to be closed. Wairewa, Akaroa, was not reopened after the death of the master ; the Native children are nearly all so far acquainted with English as to be able to profit by the instruction given at the Little Eiver public school, which is near at hand. At Awanui and Paihia, as well as at Mangamaunu and Te Oreore —two schools closed just after the end of the year—the attendance had fallen very low, and there seemed to be no reason to hope for much improvement; at Awanui and Paihia the Natives are very few in number, and at the other two places they seem to be exceedingly apathetic. New Schools and New Buildings asked foe oe in Peogeess, and Peoposals foe eeopening Schools that have been closed. It is disappointing to have to report that it has not yet been found possible to acquire sites at Poroporo, near Whakatane, and Ngapeke, near Tauranga. At Poroporo new buildings are very urgently needed, and the Ngapeke people are waiting for the long-promised removal of the Maungatapu buildings to their kaainga. Meanwhile the Natives at both of these places are becoming disgusted at what seems to them to be never-ending procrastination. They are unable to understand why the Government should allow itself to be hampered by its own technical rules with regard to the acquisition of Native-school sites, when, as far as they can see, the'public advantage and convenience could manifestly be better secured by special treatment of such cases. It is not to be wondered at that Maoris should look at -the thing in this abstract way, but their doing so causes a great deal of trouble and hindrance on the one hand, and of irritation on the other. At