E.—l

85

Lawrence District High School.

English. —The incidents of the play and the matter and language of the speeches were on the whole well known. A difficult passage was fairly paraphrased by half the class, and moderately by the rest. Latin. —Class I. answered well in every part of the work. The English into Latin was particularly good. In Class 11. the translation was accurate and well expressed. Grammar was satisfactorily known ,in this the boys were more proficient than the girls. The Latin composition was good. Class 111. had a good knowledge of what had been read. French. —The translation was accurate, but for the most part too literal, and the grammar was excellent. Geometry. —ln all the classes most of the papers were of excellent quality Algebra. —ln Class I. seven pupils gained full marks, the two others gave in good papers. In Class 11. three gained full marks, three gave in good papers, and the rest answered very fairly Class 111. also answered well. Trigonometry. —All the papers were of fair merit. In some of the district high schools the predominance of mathematics, to which we drew attention a year or two ago, is still maintained. It seems unreasonable that so much attention should be given to this branch of study while in Latin there is not time to study and work up a fairly complete elementary Latin grammar Pupils who read Caesar, Livy, and Virgil should certainly be thoroughly familiar with the accidence and syntax of such a text-book as Dr Smith's " Smaller Latin Grammar The English, Latin, and algebra papers were examined by Mr Petrie. A good deal of the English and Latin was done orally Mr Goyen examined the French, geometry, and trigonometry papers. We have, &c, D. Petkie, P. Goyen, The Secretary, Otago Education Board. Inspectors.

SOUTHLAND Sib, — Education Office, Invercargill, 25th March, 1892. In compliance with the provisions of section 102 of "The Education Act, 1877," the Education Board of the District of Southland has the honour to present the following report of its proceedings for the year 1891:— The Boaed.—During the year the constitution of the Board underwent but little change. To fill the ordinary vacancies four gentlemen were duly nominated, and the result of the election held in March, as required by the Act, was the return of Messrs. Lumsden and Matheson (re-elected), and Mr Bobert McNab, the last-named taking the place of the late Mr John Morison, who for many years displayed an earnest and intelligent interest in the deliberations of this Board, and by whose death its members lost an esteemed friend and co-worker At the ordinary meeting held on the 3rd April Mr George MoLeod was elected Chairman of the Board for the then current year. During the year the Board held twelve regular and two special meetings, and its Executive Committee (which consists of all the members of the Board for the time being) met twenty-six times. The attendance of members was very satisfactory indeed, the average for Board meetings being eight, and for meetings of the Executive Committee seven. The following figures represent the attendances made by each member The Board —Mr McLeod (Chairman), 14, Mr Baldey, 14,

Subject. Class. Number examined. Amount of Work done. English Latin I. I. 20 6 Julius Cassar, Clarendon Press Series. Caesar Book I., Chapter 41 to end, and Book II., Principia Latina, Part II., History, Book IV ; and Dr Smith's Smaller Latin Grammar Principia Latina, Part I., with Grammar and Anecdotes and Mythology of Part II. Principia Latina, Part I., 25 exercises and 12 fables of Part II. Chardenal's Second Course and Le Bourgeois Gentilhoinme. Charles XII., Books III. to VI., Grammar and Composition, Dejardin's Class-book. Charles XII., Books I. and II., Grammar and Composition, Dejardin's Class-book. Chardenal's First Course, 100 exercises. Euclid, Books I. to IV and Book VI., with Todhunter's Exercises on Book I. Euclid, Books I. to III., and 100 Exercises on Book I. (Todhunter's) Euclid, Book I. To the end of quadratics. To the end of simple equations. To the end of fractions, 93 pages (Todhunter's) Hamblin Smith's, 111 pages. II. 7 III. 11 French I. 4 II. 5 Geometry III. 7 IV I. 9 6 II. 3 Algebra III. I. II. III. I. 11 9 9 11 3 Trigonometry