E.—lc

26

CANTERBURY BOYS' HIGH SCHOOL. Manual and Technical Instruction. —There is a suitable workshop, fitted with excellent lathes, joiners' benches, and tools, in which instruction is given in carpentry, the use of tools, &c, out of school hours. The fee is 2s. 6d. per term, and covers instruction for two hours per week. During part of the time boys do work that the instructor may require, during the rest of the time they are allowed to make articles for themselves, which may, with the approval of the instructor, be taken home. The cost of timber where appreciable must be paid, and any work may be reserved for exhibition. Boys must purchase certain necessary tools or hire them at Is. per term. Mr. S. H. Seager supervises the workshop and carries out a regular course of instruction. In addition to this there is a modern form, where boys, instead of Latin, learn sloyd and shorthand. Sloyd comprises the making of models in cardboard, wood, iron, &c, from drawings previously made to scale. Apart from this, in the general school 134 boys were taught drawing, first term, 1897, of whom 93 learnt geometrical drawing ; 151 boys learnt chemistry, first term, 1897 ; and 121 boys physics. It will thus be seen that with complete arrangements for drawing and science boys obtain instruction in the main principles underlying technical education, and they have the essential elements of manual work in carpentry and sloyd. Elementary sloyd is taught to the youngest boys in place of French, and modelling is about to be introduced. For science teaching the school possesses two well-equipped laboratories, with sinks, sets of reagents, furnace, &c. There is also a lecture-room with properly equipped lecturing table, containing sink, gas, wate.r-tap, &c. The room has raised benches, and can accommodate sixty to write and over a hundred for oral instruction. For modeldrawing boys go to the School of Art. There is a dark room also close to the new laboratory for photography.

CHRIST'S COLLEGE GRAMMAR SCHOOL. Drawing is taught as an optional subject, without extra fee, and in school hours; carpentry and joinery, wood-turning and forge-work, outside school hours, at a fee of ss. per term.

TIMARU HIGH SCHOOL. Technical Education. —Mechanical drawing, drawing to scale, carpentry, sloyd (cardboard models), mensuration. The mensuration and drawing to scale are co-ordinated with the lessons in map-drawing and other parts of geography; the sloyd with geometrical drawing and Euclid ; the mechanical drawing and carpentry to some extent with the practical physics and the model-drawing.

OTAGO HIGH SCHOOLS. The arrangements for manual and technical instruction in the boys' school were as follows: — (1) Geometrical drawing ; (2) mechanical drawing ; (3) botany; (4) chemistry ; (5) industrial geography ; (6) book-keeping ; and (7) shorthand. In the girls' school each class has lessons in drawing twice a week. During the winter term a class was held for cooking and ironing, and was conducted by Mrs. Millar, of the Technical School. About 30 girls availed themselves of Mrs. Millar's services. A course of lessons in dressmaking was also held in the school.

TOKOMAIRIBO DISTRICT HIGH SCHOOL. The classes in cookery, woodwork, and agricultural chemistry, show from their increased attendance how much they are appreciated. During the year the rector has been recognised by the Education Department as competent to conduct classes in agricultural chemistry, and Mr. Archer in woodwork, and as a consequence both classes are now conducted under the Technical Education Act, and receive the Government subsidy. Additions to the laboratory apparatus of a patent methylated-spirit Bunsen burner, and a jeweller's blow-pipe, enable the class to carry out the analysis of soils and manures to a greater degree of perfection.