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6. Do you think that if this matter were merely on a capitation basis it would meet the difficulty, or are you of opinion that it should not be on a capitation basis ?—I think the capitation basis the' fairest 'basis. The smaller districts would want some aid, especially in Marlborough. 7. The Sounds schools are the chief difficulty in regard to your finances ?—Yes; they are a very heavy drag. . 8. You have no large school on which you can save capitation ?—No; they barely cover expenses. 9. You have been a member of the Board for a long time?— Yes. 10. Is it in your experience that you get a sufficient number of your young men offering for the profession, or are you confined to female teachers ?—With the exception of two or three boys who have been bred in the borough schools, I do not think we have had others offering from other parts, and two of our boys have gone elsewhere. 11. Two out of the three have drifted away from you ?—Yes. 12. How is it that these young men do not offer: are there so many avenues of employment open, or are there any other inducements ?—There are inducements offered by banks and other employments, in which they have a better status than they could obtain in the teaching profession. 13. Mr. Hill] You say, Captain Baillie, that the small schools are carried on with a very great loss by the Board?— The very small schools are. 14. You have made calculations with the intention of showing that such is the case?— Yes. 15. I see in your regulations, on page 9, " Scale of payments to aided and household schools " : that, according to them, if you have a school of 25 the cost to your Board would be about £82 10s., would it not ? —Somewhere about that. 16. Is that as much as you would receive on the 25, with the capitation of £3 15s. ?—I have not calculated it. . . 17. The cost here is £3 6s. on the small schools, on which you say there is a great loss?— With the exception of two schools, whose average may come up to 25, the others have only an average of 5, 6, 7, or 8, and it is these I refer to as the drag. I dare say a school of 25 in number would pay its way. 18. How many schools have you with an average below 10?— Thirty-nine. 19. And it is those schools which are carried on with a loss?— Yes. I might say that in the scattered districts of the Sounds, in places where there are not more than an average of 4, 5, or 6, these household schools are attended perhaps by the families of two neighbours, who put up the schools. -i.il i 20. Your desire is to foster these schools, and give them more assistance than you have hitherto ?—Yes ;it is desirable with a free education system. 21. Over and above the amount of capitation now paid ? —Yes. 22. What do you suggest as a fair amount to be paid to those schools ?—Well, in 99 per cent. of them there are female teachers. 23. Would you give them a fixed amount or a capitation allowance ?—I think a fixed amount would be more satisfactory. If a teacher received £60 a year it would be of great benefit to her. 24. What average attendance should she have to receive £60 a year?—l think an average attendance of 5 or 6. . 25. You would say £60 for that attendance ?—Yes ; there is a lot of work attached to teaching six children at different stages. 26. Mr. Mackenzie.] Do you thmk there is a great waste in dividing the sexes m this main district school ?—Yes ; there is a great waste of teaching-power, and money, contingently. When the question came before the Board fifteen or twenty ago I strenuously opposed the division of the sexes. I have seen large schools in Otago of 400 and 500, mixed schools, and have observed no injurious effects. In America not only are the schools mixed, but the universities too. 27. Would your Board be in favour of establishing mixed schools here as in other parts ?—I can only speak individually ; the thing has not been mooted for some years, and then it was on the motion of the borough School Committee that it was brought up. 28. Speaking as a stranger, one cannot see any reason why your children are not as good and pure as those in other parts of the country ?—lf there is any immorality it does not take place in the schools, but in the streets and highways on Saturday evenings. 29. Your opinion is that mixed schools could be established here on the same lines as m other places? —Yes. 30. The question of the large grants to a small number of schools has been brought under your notice : what is the motive for establishing so many of these household schools ?—The geographical conditions of the country ; the inaccessible spurs among which the greater number of these schools, thirty in number, are situated. You might, by water, pull across from one bay to another in ten minutes or a quarter of an hour, but to go by land takes very much longer—an hour or two. 31. So that it is impossible to have the schools closer, more centralised? —Yes. 32. The proposed £4 capitation grant, in your opinion, would not make much difference to your schools?—lt would relieve them to a certain extent. There aremany things which the Board is only too anxious to do, but which, owing to its crippled means, it is not able to. 33. I suppose, in the establishment of a colonial scale of staff and salaries, you, whilst wishing to see salaries in one education district improved, would not like it to be at the cost of another education district ? —No. 34. You think the £4 capitation grant will not give you in this district what you require to place your teachers in the position they ought to be placed in, and that if the Government makes due provision for your district it should not be at the expense of others, or such as to reduce reasonable salaries in other education districts ?—No; there must be an equal scale throughout the colony, without benefiting one particular district to the injury of another.