E.—l2.

The question of finance is the one that more particularly affects the schools, and before making the offer of free education the Board went very fully into its financial position, and it estimated £8 per head for the first year and £6 for subsequent years to all pupils who passed the Sixth Standard as a basis upon which it could see its way to carry on the schools efficiently. In making this calculation the Board anticipated a large entry of pupils, but it did not contemplate the obligation of having to provide free education to nearly fifty pupils as imposed by clause 2 of the regulations; in the meantime the reception of free pupils has not seriously affected the entry of pupils paying the full fee, so that for the current year the Board does not anticipate any difficulty in meeting its engagements, but in future the supply of paying pupils will naturally be reduced by reason of the facilities offered under the free-place regulations, and a reduction of fees to a uniform rate will be inevitable. In view of the foregoing facts, I would respectfully urge that if possible the terms of capitation allowance be made more liberal. Wm. Brown, Chairman.

2. General Statement of Accounts for the Year ended 31st December, 1902. Receipts. £ a. d. Expenditure. £ s. d. Balance at beginning of year .. .. 1,202 19 8 Offioe salary or salaries .. .. .. 165 0 0 Endowments—Capital Account—Prioe of Other office expenses— reserves sold.. .. .. .. 260 15 8 Rent .. .. .. .. 10 0 0 Endowments— Stamps and telegrams, &c. .. .. 22 17 6 Current income from reserves.. .. 2,345 4 2 Printing and stationery .. .. 7 3 6 Interest on moneys invested and on un- Teachers' salaries and allowances— paid purchase-money .. .. 48 14 7 Boys'school.. .. .. .. 2,582 0 0 Paid by School Commissioners .. 367 010 Girls'school.. .. .. .. 1,585 0 5 School fees— Boarding-school Account— Boys' school .. .. .. 1,477 13 0 Boys' .. .. .. .. 43 7 6 Girls' school .. .. .. 917 8 8 Girls' .. .. .. .. 265 14 9 Boarding-school fees (girls') .. .. 264 6 8 Advertising .. .. .. .. 36 1 6 Sundries and incidentals, members' tra-velling-expenses .. .. .-. 45 2 0 Prizes .. .. .. .. 33 14 7 Printing and stationery (schools) .. 53 8 8 Cleaning, fuel, light, &c, including wages of two janitors (£150) .. .. 240 9 7 Laboratories .. .. .. .. 40 13 2 Site and buildings, from current revenue— Repairs and furnishing .. .. 89 8 10 Insurance .. .. .. .. 52 19 5 Interest on debentures .. .. .. 157 10 0 Water-rates, &o. .. .. .. 87 13 4 Amount transferred to sinking fund .. 17 10 0 Expenses of survey, sales, management, &c. 17 12 2 Balance at end of year .. .. .. 1,330 16 4 £6,884 3 3 £6,884' 3 3 Wm. Brown, Chairman. C. Macandrew, Secretary. Examined and found correct. —J. K. Warburton, Controller and Auditor-General.

3. Work of the Highest and Lowest Classes. Boys' School. Highest. —English—Chaucer, Knight's Tale ; Wordsworth, selections ; Burke, Conciliation with America; Shakespeare, Julius Caesar; Milton, Paradise Lost, Book 11. (part); Historical English Grammar; composition, &c. Latin—Livy, Book XXIII. (thirty-three chapters); Horace, Odes, Books I. and III.; Virgil, iEneid, Book II.; sight translation from various authors ; prose composition ; Boman history. French—Selections from various authors ; composition, grammar, &c. Mathematics —Arithmetic (whole subject); Euclid, six books; algebra; trigonometry. Science —Botany, the morphology and physiology of botanical types. Chemistry—The metallic elements; revision of non-metallic elements. Lowest.— English—Poet's Walk; Ship Literary Beader No. 6; grammar and composition. English history—l6o3-1820. Geography—United Kingdom, British possessions, Europe, and Asia; physical and mathematical geography. Latin—Caesar, Invasion of Britain; composition and grammar. French —Chardenal; composition and grammar. Mathematics : Arithmetic— vulgar and decimal fractions, practice, proportion, interest; algebra—to equations; First Division, Euclid, Book I.; Second Division, Bradshaw's Euclid. Book-keeping —Cash-book, day-book, invoice-book, &c. Drawing—Geometrical, with easy problems. Science—Elementary physics. Girls' School. Highest. —English— Chaucer, The Knight's Tale ; Shakespeare, Hamlet; Spenser, Faerie Queene; Tennyson's Coming and Passing of Arthur ; Historical English Grammar ; composition, &c. ; literature of the Victorian period. Latin —Livy, Book XXII., chapters 15 to 29; Horace, Odes, Book I.; Book 11., three odes; Middleton's Latin Verse, Unseens; composition, grammar, &c; Boman history. French—Chardenal's Advanced Exercises; Wellington College Beader; Boielle, Poetry; Barlet and Mason, Advanced French Reader; grammar, composition, &c.;

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