.— Ib.

open'but a few weeks when the Inspector was examining the schools in the vicinity; and none but the teacher and Inspector attended at Hokonui on the morning of the day set apart for the examination, the children being kept at home owing to the inclemency of the weather. Compared with that of last year, the summary of results for the whole district discloses no striking contrast, the only noticeable feature being a slight decrease in the percentage of promotions in the standards below the Sixth, which appears to indicate greater solicitude than was last year shown by some of the teachers to select for promotion really fit and deserving pupils. In Standard VI., which is examined by the Inspectors, the percentage of pupils receiving the proficiency certificate is practically the same as it was last year. The averages of ages show such slight variations from the averages of the previous year that they too may be deemed practically the same. We submit here a separate table showing the total roll and the number of pupils in Classes VI. and VII. for the past eleven years, from which interesting information may be gathered :—

It will be observed that, while from the year 1894 onwards the total roll on each successive year till 1901 does not vary by so much as one hundred, the increase in the number of pupils presented in the two highest classes has been, with but slight exceptions, rapid and continuous. Contrasting the figures of the present year (1902) with those of the year 1892, we find almost twice as many pupils in Standard VI. in the latter year as in the former, and more than twice as many in Standard VII. No doubt various factors contribute to this noteworthy development, but we think we are right in saying that the chief factors are an increase in the efficiency of the teachers, and an increased desire on the part of parents to see their children taking full advantage of the education so generously provided by the State. Whatever be the explanation, there is open to the Board but one way of viewing the fact, and that is with unfeigned satisfaction. During the year we laid before the Board some three hundred inspection and examination reports. As the tenor of these reports, in which schools and school-work are supposed to be faithfully mirrored, was but seldom challenged by the Board on the ground of unsatisfaotoriness, it would appear that in respect both of discipline and teaching our schools maintain a uniformly satisfactory standard of efficiency. Speaking of efficiency, we may point out that, through the operation of the new regulations concerning staffing, some schools are markedly more efficient than they were, some markedly less. This double phase of progress and retrogression has arisen thus : Some schools have received an extra teacher, being for this reason raised at once to a higher plane of efficiency ; but the available supply of certificated teachers having been absorbed in the filling of the new positions, the positions vacated, and others arising in ordinary course, had to be filled by applicants of incomplete qualifications, and to this extent the general efficiency of the teaching in the district has been impaired. This deviation from the path of progress is, of course, merely partial and temporary, for the uncertificated teachers may be expected to establish their positions as soon as possible at the examination of teachers. Referring in few words to the subjects of instruction, we shall deal first with the Pass Subjects. —Reading : In the majority of the larger schools great care is bestowed on the teaching of this subject, the result being that most of the pupils are able to read at sight accurately and fluently. In many, perhaps most, of the smaller schools, on the other hand, there is much to be desired by way of improvement. The chief obstacles in the way of progress are want of time and want of reading-matter. Both the extra time and the extra books could be secured by the following simple rearrangement of the syllabus. Each child in each class should be given three books —one in picture literature, one in biography and history, and one in geography and travel—and the wearisome lecture on history and geography should be abandoned. It is only conservatism of the most pronounced type that delays the realisation of this proposal. Surely children would get more enjoyment and profit by reading aloud or silently from the splendidly prepared readers in history and geography now obtainable than by listening, very likely with the air and attitude of passive resistance, to the teacher's recitation of dry and often heterogeneous facts. The method of lecturing, even when the lectures are liberally interspersed with questions, is, except in the most skilful hands, doubly wasteful —wasteful of time and wasteful of energy. Under the conditions suggested, pupils might be expected to love their books and to realise in some measure the original purpose of a school as a place of leisurely development.

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Year. Total Roll. Number in VI. Number in VII. Total in VI. and VII. 1892 1893 1894 1895 1896 1897 1898 1899 1900 1901 1902 9,053 9,696 9,328 9,483 9,522 9,558 9,494 9,424 9,432 9,394 9,539 382 502 412 451 444 559 593 588 616 680 718 102 116 143 155 153 177 187 193 212 202 238 484 618 555 606 597 736 780 781 828 882 956