8.—14.

14

very generous provision applies to both kinds of scholarships : " Where the holder of a Junior or Senior National Scholarship is obliged to live away from home in order to prosecute his studies, there shall be paid him an additional sum of £30 per annum." Summing up, therefore, we find (1) that New Zealand provides about a thousand " free places " in secondary schools for selected children from the primary schools ; (2) that free secondary education at district high schools is provided for about fifteen hundred pupils ; (3) that £8,395 was spent in special scholarships by the Boards in 1902 ; and (4) that Parliament has now made provision for about a hundred Junior National Scholarships of the annual value of £10 over and above tuition fees, and forty-eight Senior National Scholarships of the annual value of £20 over and above tuition fees, with the proviso that any scholar necessarily resident away from home will be paid £30 in addition. Technical Education. So far as I could gather, Victoria has little to learn from New Zealand in methods of technical instruction ; but, although New Zealand has evidently entered upon an organized system of technical education but recently, there are many points in connection with this organization which we can consider with profit. In Victoria the technical schools lie outside the other grades of our education system, both State and private ; technical education is not co-ordinated with these, and consequently the less important schools are not in a flourishing condition. In New Zealand, on the other hand, co-ordination has been the aim kept in view throughout. " The Manual and Technical Instruction Act, 1900," makes provision for grants in aid of manual and technical instruction, and recognises as agencies in imparting this instruction —(1) " school classes " in connection with any primary school or any technical school; (2) " special classes," such as evening or day continuation classes, established apart from a primary or secondary school ; (3) " associated classes " established jointly by an Education Board or School Committee and a school of art, agricultural college, or industrial or pastoral association, or some association in connection with a Municipal Council; and (4) " college classes " for higher technical work associated with the University. Expenditure upon manual and technical instruction is governed as usual in New Zealand by capitation grants. The recent report of the Mosely Education Commission emphasizes the importance to America of the fine work done in establishing and maintaining secondary, continuation, and technical schools in close correlation with an efficient primary-school system. New Zealand has all the elements of an efficient national system, and is in the favourable position of having them all readily amenable to skilled direction. Co-ordination of educational grades has been solved, and a healthy circulation of pupils and teachers throughout the whole national system has been provided for. All of the conditions of healthy growth exist, and the future is distinctly hopeful. Before the same can be said of Victoria much work must be done, and there must be a radical change in public opinion in the direction of giving increased responsibilities to the Department in connection with secondary education and continuation work. Cost of Primary Education. It has been the fashion of late for some of the Victorian newspapers to declaim against what they call the excessive cost of primary education in this State. It may be interesting, therefore, to compare the expenditure in New Zealand for the past year with that of Victoria. Victorian expenditure for 1902-3 — £ s. d. Instruction, administration, buildings, and exhibitions and scholarships .. •• •• •• •■ 640,196 5 2 Average attendance for 1902-3—150,268. Cost per head .. .. •• •• •• 452 Cost per head, exclusive of buildings (in order to omit a variable factor in Victorian administration).. .. 3 19 11 New Zealand expenditure for 1902— Expenditure by the Education Boards for instruction, administration, buildings, and scholarships .. .. .. 586,064 15 11 Average attendance in Board Schools for 1902—113,711. Cost per head .. .. • • • • • • 5 3 0 [Note. —This takes no account of expenditure upon the central Department, nor of expenditure upon drill in schools, Native schools, or of inspection and instruction of manual work.] Cost, per head, exclusive of buildings .. .. .. 412 2 In addition to the Board schools, there are ninety-nine Native schools, which cost £21,204 during 1902. The for the year was 3,005, making the cost per head about £7. The work done is, however, so exceptional that is it useless for comparison with that of another State. Conclusion. I desire to place on record my gratitude to the educational authorities in the central Department at Wellington, and in the provinces I visited, for their unfailing kindness and desire to assist me. My experience at the Educational Conference was a most stimulating one, and I carried from it much that should be of value to me in my administrative work. The ability and untiring energy of Mr. Hogben, the Inspector-General, were shown not only in the drafting of the revised programme, but in his conduct