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TARANAKI. Sir,— New Plymouth, 31st March, 1904. In accordance with the provisions of section 102 of " The Education Act, 1877," the Education Board of the District of Taranaki has the honour to submit the following report of its proceedings for the year 1903 : — The Board. —At the beginning of the year the Board was composed of the following members : E. G. Allsworth, Esq. (Chairman), Mrs. Jane R. Dougherty, Messrs. G. A. Adlam, Henry Faull, Arthur Morton, Joseph Mackay, M.A., D. H. McDonald, John Taylor, and James Wade. Mrs. Dougherty, and Messrs. Faull and Mackay retired in the terms of section 15 of the Education Act. Four candidates were nominated for the vacancies, and the voting resulted in the re-election of Mrs. Dougherty, Messrs. Faull and Mackay. In September, Mr. John Taylor resigned, and Mr. William Monkhouse was elected to fill the vacancy. The Board held twelve ordinary meetings. In addition to a number of special committees, the following standing committees met regularly during the year, and besides relieving the Board of a vast amount of detail work, devoted a close attention to the business that came before them, which, while very necessary and desirable, is impossible to obtain from the Board when only monthly meetings are held : Finance, Teachers' Selection, Reserves, and Sewing. Schools. —New schools have been opened at Waitui and Kahui Road, and, owing to the poor attendance, the Pohokura School has been temporarily closed. There were seventy-three schools open at the end of the year, including four half-time schools; the number of teachers employed in these schools was 134, who were graded as follows : Sole teachers, 23 female and 18 male; head teachers, 5 female and 24 male; assistants, 38 female and 7 male; pupil-teachers, 19 female. Pupil-teachers.—At the annual examination 14 pupil-teachers entered, of whom 12 passed, and 2 failed. The papers were set and examined by the Department. Scholarships.—For senior scholarships there were 15 candidates, and for junior, 18. Of the senior candidates 8 qualified, and of the junior, 8. Senior scholarships were awarded to 3 pupils at the New Plymouth High School, and to 2 at the Stratford District High School; and junior scholarships to 1 at Omata School, 1 at Midhirst School, 2 at lnglewood School, and 1 at Ngaire School. A Midhirst pupil, who would have been awarded a Board scholarship, gained a National scholarship. Finance.—The receipts of the Board from all sources, including a balance of £1,713 135., brought forward from 1902, amounted to £23,146 10s. 2d., while the expenditure was as follows : Administration, £1,513 4s. 9d. ; teachers' salaries, £15,188 lis. lOd.; incidental expenses of schools, £1,137 3s. lOd. ; secondary education, £606 lis. lOd. ; manual and technical, £218 os.4d, ; buildings, £3,958 15s. lOd. : total, £22,622 Bs. 6d.; leaving a balance of £524 Is. 9d., against which are liabilities fully covering it. The Board has, on several occasions, made application for the extra 9d. of capitation provided for in the Public-school Teachers' Salaries Act, but, so far, without success. Buildings.—New schools have been erected at Raupuha and at Kahui Road, and the Toko and Tariki Schools have been enlarged. The Wortley Road School has been removed to a more central position at the junction of the Richmond and Lincoln Roads. The Uruti School was burned down, and a contract has been let for its re-erection. An inquiry was held by the police, but it failed to disclose the cause of the fire. Public-school Teachers' Salaries Act and Small Schools.—The whole of the changes required by the passing of the above Act, which have been in progress during the past two years, have now been completed, and all schools are staffed and classified in accordance with the Act. In many cases teachers and schools have benefited, but the effect on the very small schools has been disastrous. These schools, already a source of anxiety to the Board, have on several occasions had to be closed owing to the impossibility of finding a teacher for them. Tongaporutu, Huiroa, Hurford Road, and Pukearuhe, were all closed at the end of the year for this reason. The difficulty, owing to the small number of pupil-teachers in training in the district, appears to be likely to increase as time goes on. This inflicts a very great hardship on the pioneer settlers whose children have the strongest claim to receive special consideration at the hands of the State. The remedy would seem to be to fix a minimum salary of at least £100 ; even then the quality of the instruction is likely to suffer through the disinclination of teachers to leave the larger centres. If the Boards had a discretionary power to give a bonus in the ease of very small schools, in proportion to the inaccessibility of the school, it would go a long way to meet this difficulty. Appointments, Transfers, etc. —Early in the year Mr. W. A. Ballantyne, 8.A., from Ota°-o, took up his duties as Assistant Inspector, and Miss M. Bell Thomson was appointed cadet in the Secretary's office. These additions to the staff were urgently required to cope with the rapidly increasing work. The demand for returns and information by the Education Department has been exceptionally heavy and a very serious tax on the time of the staff. During the year there have been seventy-nine changes in the teaching staff; one teacher died, and eighteen teachers left the Board's service, several of whom were females who left to enter the matrimonial state. Nine teachers from other districts received appointments. In its efforts to promote teachers the Board received valuable assistance from School Committees. Teachers' Classes. —These classes have been maintained throughout the year and well attended. Teachers from those parts of the district not served by railway find it very difficult and expensive to attend and some travelling-allowance should be made to them. District High School and Secondary Education.—The District High School at Stratford the only one in the district —continues to be a well-conducted and successful institution. It has now an attendance of seventy pupils in the secondary classes. The passing of the Secondary Education Act of last session was very favourably received, and will prove, it is hoped, beneficial to the Stratford District High School and the New Plymouth High School, particularly in the case of the latter, by bringing it into closer touch with the primary schools at the north end of the

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