E.—s

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weaving, card-pricking, brick and tablet designing, modelling in plasticine, carton-work, gardening, ambulance, cookery, and in one small school wood-carving—using the birds of the neighbourhood as models. The school gardens increased from six to seventeen during the year. In these, experiments are made in raising numerous kinds of flowers and vegetables. Technical and continuation classes were carried on in Canvastown. There were special teachers' classes in ambulance (Blenheim and Havelock), brush, blackboard, nature-study, and model drawing (Blenheim). At the close of the ambulance lectures in Blenheim, twenty-four candidates sat at the examination for the certificates of St. John's Ambulance Association, and twenty-two succeeded in passing. The doctor examining referred to the average attainment in terms of high praise. From observation of the daily papers it appears that this class work has time and again been put to practical use by members of the classes in cases of cuts, fractures, and fits occurring in up-country places, on the football field, and by the sea-shore. School cookery classes were initiated at Fairhall, and others followed at Okaramio and Marlboroughtown. These have been very successful. A grant has been made for the building and equipment of woodwork and cookery rooms at Blenheim. The work of building is delayed through difficulty in obtaining bricks and timber. The nucleus of a library for the assistance of teachers desiring to refer to publications on handwork is formed at the Board's office. This was initiated by setting aside £o from the grant for the instruction of teachers. An attempt is being made to arrange for an instructor skilled in showing how agriculture may be made a means of education, and in order to obtain some financial assistance the local bodies have been met in conference. Local authorities in other parts of the world, notably in the United States and in England, have taken a large view of their responsibilities in this matter. The interest taken in handwork is complex: it is due—(l.) To the attempt to culitvate faculties that have been hitherto neglected, but which should, in a complete scheme of education, be considered. Professor Rosenkrantz says, "What appears to be negligence, rudeness, immorality, foolishness, or oddity may arise from some real needs of the youth which, in their development, have taken a wrong direction." Sometimes the scheme of education had, by taking too narrow a view, not given such pupils scope for employing their surplus energy. They had always been called on to understand, but never to act. Professor Robertson, of Canada, referring to rural schools and the effect of manual training on " bad " boys, remarks that " these are simply boys with a form of energy that must find expression, and.if not led into good channels will break out into erratic ones that are denominated ' bad.' It (handwork) satisfies the boy." (2.) The other braintracks may be stimulated by manual training. Sequin began the education of the idiot by training the hand-movements, and of these he selected for the first lessons those that were most fundamental—grasping, supporting, letting go, throwing, catching—and leading up generally by some admirable teaching tact to the accessory; correlation of eye and hand in natural exercises called forth the pupil's interest. Strangely, after two years' education on this plan, the general mentality of the boy whom he describes had also improved to a degree that was marvellous even to teachers. The stimulation of the evolutionary levels in their natural order, through the hand-training, had strengthened them also for the discharge of mental functions. (3.) By handwork the pupil may be drawn towards employments requiring the use of the hand. A person with little facility in reading avoids reading. If the inclination for handwork is roused, a sympathy will be felt for those pursuits that require the use of the hand, and the better class of boy may be retained for the country instead of drifting to the town. As the farming industry is the backbone of a country's wealth, the educationist cannot neglect this aspects We require, in New Zealand, the correlation of agricultural work through the primary to high schools, thence to agricultural colleges and to the agricultural faculties at the university.

NELSON. Extract from the Report op the Education Board. Technical School. —During the year a technical school has been erected in Nelson, consisting of woodwork and plumbers' workrooms, a cookery room (used also for dressmaking), an art room, a room for architectual drawing and mechanical drawing, and two rooms for continuation classes. One session has been held, and the attendance tended to prove that the school supplied an actual need. The following is a list of the classes held, and the number of pupils on the roll of each: Mechanical drawing, 15 pupils; architectural drawing, 19; woodwork, 26; dressmaking, 29; plumbing, 13; freehand drawing from casts and in light and shade, 36; modelling, 1 ; cookery, 18; wood-carving, 11; mathematics, 4. The above were all technical classes. The following continuation classes were also held: English, 33 pupils; arithmetic, 33; shorthand, 33; book-keep-ing, 25. The following teachers' classes have been held in the Nelson Technical School or in connection therewith, viz.: Woodwork, cookery, vocal music, drawing, physiography, dressmaking. Teachers' classes in drawing of various kinds have been held in Westport, and at Reefton in modelling in plasticine, in drawing, and in brushwork. Handwork was taught in thirty-eight of the public schools of the district, including most of the larger ones. It is a matter for regret that no understanding has yet been arrived at to enable the Board to erect a building at Westport that would be suitable for both a school of mines and a technical school. Extract from the Report of the Inspectors op Schools. Handwork.— Various branches of handwork were taken up in thirty-nine different schools— one-third of this number being schools below grade 4—the subjects embracing plasticine-modelling, elementary physiology, swimming, brush drawing, bricklaying, and free-arm drawing. The handwork itself was usually executed in a satisfactory manner, though we should like to see in some of