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corresponding table to my Table 111., although the mean percentage of passes in subjects for the year is not given, a slight calculation will show that it is 66-1; and consequently the mean percentage of failures in subjects for 1890 is no less than 33-9, or 8-2 in excess of mine last year. Here we have absolute demonstration that the schools have at least not been judged more severely this year than last. The only difference is in the circumstance that this year those scholars who have failed in two or more subjects have not been allowed a pass in standards. And how absolutely necessary is this proviso I think I have clearly shown in what I have now said in this report. Having dwelt at such length on the pass-subjects this year I will omit any detailed reference to the other branches of the curriculum. Statistics referring to them will be found in Table 11. Attendance. —The sensitiveness or otherwise of the school conscience is always well indicated by the attendance of scholars on examination-day. Judged by this standard, the schools, with one exception, leave little to be desired; more than half of them presented their full muster-roll on the day of my visit, whilst eight of the remainder had but one absentee each; and in this eight is included the large Hokitika School, with its 362 scholars. The only serious offender in this connection is the Kumara School, as already once noticed, which, with a roll-number of 353 scholars, had no less than twenty-three absentees on examination-day in Classes I. to VI. I find, however, that it is not on examination-day alone that absentees are numerous at this school; on the contrary, a reference to its statistics makes it abundantly clear that the attendance was better on the occasion in question than at any other time during the year, the average annual attendance being only 75 per cent, of the average weekly roll-number, or 262 scholars out of 350; whilst, if the quarterly returns be taken instead of the annual, it will be found that at no period of the year did the children attend much better, the quarterly percentages of attendance being respectively 75, 74, 76, and 73 of the roll-number. That the results obtained on examination-day at this school were deplorable we have already seen, nor can one hope for much improvement next time unless the habits of the scholars are changed meanwhile in respect to attendance. It goes without saying that the most conscientious and devoted head-teacher can effect little in the education of scholars half of whom are absent half their time; for that, on reflection, will be seen to be the exact meaning of the annual percentage I have shown to obtain in this school. It is for the School Committee, if it will pardon the suggestion, to assist the teachers in this matter by each member taking it in turn to hunt up the absentees. Speaking generally, truant officers seem to effect but little. Manners.—The Inspector is required by the regulations to report on the manners of the children attending the schools ; I must speak, however, with 'bated breath on this point. What constitutes good manners in school children, or, rather, by what criterion shall an Inspector, who sees the same children once or twice a year only, determine their knowledge and practice of the courtesies of life ? If I may be allowed to say so I think a very good test may be found in the reception they accord to a visitor to the school. Do they rise from their seats to welcome him on his entrance into the room, or do they remain stock-still as before, and just stare at him ? In the latter case they could only be reported polite by the generosity of their visitor. The two schools of Woodstock and Hokitika, however, with four small schools in South Westland, need no such indulgence to escape the charge of bad manners. Infant Classes. —In the generations to come, when men are wiser than now, the infant classes of a school will be regarded as more important than any others, and will receive the most thought and study from the teachers. From what I have seen of the infant classes of this district this year I am inclined to regard most of them as fairly efficient,, and three of them as thoroughly so—namely, Hokitika, Bluespur, and Stafford. In the last of these there is no singing, it is true, and this is certainly a defect in the administration ; but I am bound to acknowledge that in all other respects the work of this particular infant class was as well, if not better, done, than that of any other under the Board. Nevertheless there is no doubt that not only singing, but action-songs, as they are called, ought to form a principal item in the exercises of all infant schools, where the work should partake very much of the nature of play. School Libraries.—One of the most powerful helps to the teacher—especially in country districts —is the existence of a good school library for the use of the children. Nothing does more to awaken mental activity in the children tban this; whilst, on the other hand, it seems almost hopeless to attempt to excite any intellectuol enthusiasm in scholars who see no printed page from year's end to year's end except the reading-book which happens to be in use in their class. Some of the schools of this district, I am glad to see, are already provided with libraries, even the desolation of the remote South being relieved by a small collection of valuable books in the Okuru School, a circumstance of which the teacher is justly proud. Other schools, however, much nearer home are still without this necessary of school-life—l would instance the case of the two Kokatahi schools —and it is to be hoped that the community in each of these school districts will at once wake up to the fact, and, if the Board has no funds for the purpose, raise the small sum required by united effort. I say this in the interests alike of teachers and children. District High School. —I do not like to close this report, both for personal and public reasons, without a word of reference to the Hokitika District High School. The condition of the Eector's class in this school, both as to number and efficiency, in this, the first year of its existence, has been such, if I may be allowed to say so, as to make its establishment a subject on which to congratulate both the Board and the district. The attendance showed from the first that the opportunities offered by the class were appreciated by the community, which may very reasonably take pride in the thought that it can now complete the education of its older and most advanced scholars without sending them away from home. The syllabus of work done in this class during the year, as well as the results obtained at the Inspector's examination of it, will be found as an appendix to this report. I have, &c, The Chairman Education Board, Westland. John Gammell, 8.A., Inspector.

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