E.—l.

Work in connection with the new industrial school that is being established near Levin is progressing steadily; the main building is completed, most of the heavy preparatory work on the land necessary to the establishment of the farm has been done. Already there has been some return for the expenditure, the amount received on account of sales of cattle, produce, &c, during last year being £252 18s. Bd.; and it is anticipated that there will be a substantial increase in the receipts for this year. The property is over 400 acres in extent, and there should be little difficulty in making the land very reproductive, as it is of excellent quality. School for Deaf-mutes. The building which was in course of erection at the date of the last report is now finished, and will shortly be occupied ; the arrangements for lighting and furnishing it are in progress. It contains quarters for the Director, a dining-hall 30 ft. by 60 ft., five class-rooms, dormitories for some forty inmates, and other necessary accommodation for their care and comfort. All the inmates will now be taught in this building, but until its completion by the addition of another wing only the girls will live in it, the boys continuing in the meantime to occupy the old building. The sum expended during the year upon the new building was £8,494 3s. 9d. In 1902 the amount was £609 12s. Bd. Four boys and 6 girls left the school during the year, and 3 boys and 11 girls were admitted. At the end of the year the number in residence was 34 boys and 30 girls, 1 boy and 5 girls more than at the end of 1902. The ordinary expenditure on the institution for the year 1903 was : Salaries of Director and teachers, £1,715 125.; steward, matron, and servants, £66465. 6d.; rent, £172; housekeeping, £1,076 95.; travelling-expenses (including transit of pupils), £210 17s. 3d.; school material and material for technical instruction, £7 9s. 5d.; general maintenance of buildings and furniture, £84 18s. Id.; clothing, £27 14s. Id.; medical attendance and medicine, £30 9s. Bd.; water-supply, £33 14s. ; sanitation, £16 17s. 6d.; boarding-out of pupils, £221 9s. 4d.; sundries, £85 os. lOd. : total expenditure, £4,466 17s. Bd. Deducting recoveries, parents' contributions, £370 7s. 9d., the net expenditure was £4,096 9s. lid. The amount expended in 1902 was £3,655 10s. Bd. Two deaf-mute children who, from having received partial training on the manual or sign system, were ineligible for admission to our own institution were maintained in the Yictorian School for the Deaf, at a cost of £100 ; and one was under a private teacher in Auckland, to whom a fee of £20 was paid by the Department. Institute for the Blind. The Jubilee Institute for the Blind, at Auckland, is a private institution, and not in any way under Government control. Being, however, a "separate institution" under the Hospitals and Charitable Institutions Acts it receives a subsidy at the rate of 245. in the pound upon the voluntary contributions raised by the Trustees, and, in addition, payment is made to it by the Education Department on account of pupils for whose tuition the Department is responsible. The Trustees have also received at various times grants in aid of buildings. The total amount paid on account of Government pupils during the year 1903 was £486 12s. 4d. The Department also paid 12s. Bd. for railway fare of a pupil, and £14 for the separate tuition of a pupil in Christchurch; £56 was recovered from parents and others. The number of Government pupils at the end of 1902 was 18; lof these left during the year 1903, and 5 were admitted; the number of such pupils at the close of the last year was accordmgly 22.

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