B.—lb.

Additional Subjects. —-Singing, fair; needlework, very good ; drill, good; mean result, good. History and science are within a fraction of the minimum mark for " satisfactory," and the other subjects set down as " fair " are nearer the minimum mark for " satisfactory" than that for " fair." The mean result of all the subjects is " satisfactory " —that is, the schools made in the subjects of instruction a mean of over 64 per cent, of the marks attainable. Handwork has been introduced into a few of the schools, and gives fair promise of success. By means of summer classes for the teachers of the outlying districts, Saturday classes for those at a distance from Dunedin but served by the railways, and evening classes for those in Dunedin and suburbs, preparation is being made for the general introduction of manual and technical instruction. The central cookery classes were a marked success. In these classes over 289 girls from the Sixth and Seventh Standards of the Dunedin and suburban schools went through a course of twenty two-hour lessons in the theory and practice of plain cookery. Classification op Schools according to General Efficiency Mark. Weak, 2; fair, 28; satisfactory, 96; good, 72; very good, 7. Schools temporarily under peculiarly disadvantageous circumstances have been omitted. We prefer the aspect of the work presented here to that presented above, and the more so that under the heads " good " and " very good " are grouped most of our large schools. It shows that a large number of our schools are in an efficient condition. Reading is rated as satisfactory, but in most of the large schools and in a fair proportion of the small ones it merited the mark " good." The rapid reading of which we have had so frequently to complain is less frequently met with, and there has been a decided advance in clearness of enunciation and intelligent expression. In comprehension, classes do fairly well, readily explaining words and phrases, and correctly embodying them in sentences of their own; but they do not so readily seize and express the leading thought of a paragraph that has just been read. Our schools have been fairly free from what is erroneously styled " Austral English." It is now, however, we think, insidiously gaining ground, and teachers should be on their guard against it. Spelling (including writing to dictation) is good. A large proportion of the schools earned " very good," and fourteen " excellent." Writing is satisfactory; indeed, in a considerable proportion of the schools it is good. The writing of the spelling and dictation tests determines the efficiency-mark and the pass in writing; but in doubtful cases of pass and failure recourse is had to the copy-books. In most of the schools the rate of writing to dictation, even in the Sixth Standard, is painfully slow; and were the efficiency-mark determined by the more rapidly written composition or geography it would probably be but fair. In many of the schools writing is practised rather than taught, and that under insufficient supervision. In addition, we but rarely find the pupils properly seated and with hands and pens properly held. We too frequently see pupils sitting with back bent, spine twisted, and right shoulder much higher than left. Such positions may'not affect the writing, but they must be injurious to the young growing body. Many of the pupils write with the forefinger and thumb unsupported by the middle finger, and bent so as to form a circle, the hand resting on its side instead of on the little finger, and the points of the pen pressing unequally on the paper. These pupils have little control over their pens, and when the rate of writing is slightly accelerated the writing produced is of a very inferior character. The habitually correct position of body, hand, and pen we regard as an essential mark of good teaching, and teachers should spare no pains to secure it. Head teachers and the teachers of the preparatory classes and lower standards should realise their special responsibility in connection with the formation of the habit to which we have referred. We acknowledge the difficulties involved, but we know that they can be overcome. What we have said of writing-positions applies also to those of drawing. Drawing results are on the whole good, but possibly the lines on which we are working might be improved. Freehand drawing is restricted to copying with pencil fine-line drawings on a small scale. We think that the crayon and even the chalk might also be used, and that drawing on a large scale, possibly free-arm drawing, might be practised with profit. We might also have original drawing. In some of our schools drawing is used in the object lesson to compel accuracy in detailed observation. The object examined is a leaf, a pansy, a butterfly, and as the lesson proceeds the outline is drawn by the pupils, and feature after feature filled in as observed. Occasionally the drawing follows the lesson, sometimes from observation, sometimes from memory. The object lesson should not be made a drawing lesson, but the object lesson and the drawing lesson should be mutually helpful. In one of our schools, where the drawing of the preparatory classes is taught with much enthusiasm, the teacher has a collection of her pupils' original designs for ornamental borders founded on the straight line and circle. Some of these, drawn in our presence by seven-year-old children, show not only command of the pencil, but artistic temperament well worthy of development. Drawing is a mode of expression, and drawing from memory or from imagination is of high intellectual and economic value. In the lower standards blackboard demonstration of arithmetic is good, and in the upper frequently excellent. There is still, however, too little concrete work in the lower classes, and too little memorising of brief statements of important principles in all. To the vast majority of the pupils much of the arithmetic prescribed in the regulations is of little practical value, and its disciplinary value is not sufficiently high to warrant the excessive demand it makes on time and energy. We would fain see the regulation requirements materially diminished. As a matter of fact, the life arithmetic of 50 per cent, of our pupils will be simple mental problems involving weights, measures, and money; and accuracy and rapidity in dealing with these should be a characteristic of our school-work. Composition and grammar are improving. Colloquial errors less frequently disfigure the school compositions, and the children themselves are able to detect and correct common errors in

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