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1904. NEW ZEALAND.

EDUCATION: CONFERENCE OF INSPECTORS OF SCHOOLS AND TEACHERS' REPRESENTATIVES, 1904.

Presented to both Houses of the General Assembly by Command of B.is Excellency.

MINUTES OF PROCEEDINGS.

Wednesday, 3rd Febbuaby, 1904. The Conference met at the Parliamentary Buildings, Wellington, at 11 a.m. Present : Mr. G. Hogben, Inspector-General (Chairman), Dr. W. J. Anderson (North Canterbury), Messrs. F. H. Bakewell (Wellington), W. A. Ballantyne (Taranaki), A. Bell (South Canterbury), W. W. Bird (Native Schools), C. E. Bossence (Otago), G. D. Braik (Southland), M. H. Browne (Wellington), K. Crowe (Auckland), W. S. Fitzgerald (Otago), T. R. Fleming (Wellington), J. G. Gow (South Canterbury), P. Goyen (Otago), W. Gray (Wanganui), J. Grierson (Auckland), G. A. Harkness (Nelson), J. Hendry (Southland), H. Hill (Napier), E. C. Isaac (Wellington), J. Milne (Wanganui), A. J. Morton (Westland), E. K. Mulgan (Auckland), D. Petrie (Auckland), J. H. Pope (Native Schools), E. C. Purdie (Auckland), C. E. D. Richardson (Otago), T. Eitchie (North Canterbury), W. E. Spencer (Taranaki), D. A. Strachan (Nelson), H. Smith (Grey), J. Smith (Marlborough), and L. B. Wood (North Canterbury). Mr. Frank Tate, Director of Primary and Technical Education, Victoria, was also present by the invitation of the Conference. The Chairman addressed the Conference as follows :— Gentlemen, —Again I have the honour and the pleasure, after an interval of three years, of welcoming you to Wellington to take part in a Conference, which has now, I am glad to say, •become established as one of the recognised institutions of our educational system. Ido not propose at the present moment to make any remarks on the subjects that will be brought before you for consideration, because I think it is well that we should settle some of the formal business first. Allow me, however, to express on behalf of the Minister of Education, who is not able to be present to-day, a hearty welcome to you all, and the hope that your labours may be as mutually helpful on this occasion as they were three years ago, and as full of benefit to the educational system of the colony. I have taken the liberty of expressing on your behalf the desire of the Conference to see Mr. Tate, Director of Education, Victoria, present with us at our opening, and I believe you will be equally desirous of seeing him at all our meetings. He informs me that he has come here to learn something from us in New Zealand. It is not for me to say how much he may be able to learn from us, but I am quite sure that if he will give us the benefit of some of his ideas we shall have a great deal to learn from him. I have now a sad duty to perform—namely, to express our regret that the Minister who was in charge of the Department when we last met, after a useful life, has ceased to be in the land with those that work. Possibly some member of the Conference may be moved to propose a resolution with regard to that, but I feel deeply the death of one with whom I have been associated so long, and whose unfailing courtesy and silent work for more than eight years in the post of Minister of Education —work marked by an intelligent and keen appreciation of the important issues involved —have not always perhaps been so fully appreciated as they deserved. Mr. Crowe moved, " That the meetings of the Conference be open to the representatives of the Press." On a division being taken, the motion was carried by 17 votes to 15. It was agreed, " That the Conference sit from 9.30 a.m. till 12.30 p.m., and from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. daily." Mr. Bakewell was appointed Secretary. It was agreed, on the motion of Mr. Petrie, " That the proposer of a motion be allowed to speak twenty minutes, and any subsequent speaker on the motion ten minutes." Mr. Spencer proposed, and. Mr. Richardson seconded, " That this Conference place on record its appreciation of the great services rendered to the cause of education by the late Minister for Education, the Hon. W. C. Walker, and its keen regret at the loss of one who always displayed the strongest sympathy with any movement tending to the educational advancement of the colony." The motion was carried unanimously. On the motion of Mr. Richardson, it was agreed, " That Messrs. Petrie, Goyen, Hill, Fleming, Bakewell, and Dr. Anderson be the Standing Orders Committee,"

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