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are almost unknown, although the Superintendent of Schools has the right, if he sees fit, to cause all the pupils of'all the schools to undergo an annual examination. The programme of studies in the ordinary high schools, the manualtraining high schools, and evening high schools, is printed in the Appendix. In spite of the large foreign element in the population, the excellence of the English work is a distinct feature in the high schools. In foreign languages, the methods are varied ; the official programme prescribes the natural or direct system in the teaching of German, but, with an inconsistency that the teachers themselves could not explain to me, seems to foster the use of the old system in the teaching of French. The diverse character of the population of Chicago is reflected in the schools, and introduces difficulties into the organization and teaching which are practically unknown to us, except in a mild form in a few of our Maori village schools. A few examples may be cited :In the Crane Manual Training School, in the year 1906, out of 863 pupils, 315 were of American birth, 104 were German (born abroad, or native-born, but both parents born abroad), 55 were Irish, 77 Scandinavian, &c. ; in the Englewood High School, out of 480, 249 were American, 70 Scandinavian, 59 German, &c. ; in the Murray F. Tuley High School, out of 579, the number of Americans, Canadian, English, Scotch, and Irish together amounted to 32, the Germans numbered 109, and the Scandinavians 265 ; in the Burr School the total roll was 642, of whom 12 were American, 180 German, 307 Polish, 74 Russian or Lithuanian ; in the Garfield School, 471 out of 664 were Russian ; in the Dante School, 515 out of 567 were Italian ; in the Jirka School, 401 out of 548 were Bohemians ; and so on. Yet, in a few years, these children are all turned out American citizens, with trained minds, speaking English as if it were their mother-tongue, and as proud of their adopted country as if their ancestors had landed in the " Mayflower." Evening Schools. The large foreign element in the population mainly determines the character of the evening schools. Of the seventeen thousand pupils enrolled in those schools, more than half —8,596 —were in classes for foreigners ; of the remainder, 4,166 were in the regular elementary work, 631 in sewing, 636 in cooking, 743 in manual training, 947 in physical culture, 965 in bookkeeping, 585 in stenography and typewriting, 593 in construction drawing, 187 in high-school English, 13 in Latin, 61 in French, 48 in German, 28 in Spanish, 76 in high-school algebra, 60 in physics, and 63 in chemistry. The average attendance was 9,714, or 56 per cent, of the roll. It will thus be seen that the amount of manual and technical work done in these classes was not large ; taking the widest signification of the term, only 16 per cent, of the pupils were receiving instruction of this kind ; five-sixths of the pupils were taking continuation courses, mostly elementary. In New Zealand in the same year, 1906, the average attendance at continuation and manual and technical classes, exclusive of school classes for manual work, was 17,707 ; of this number 46 per cent, were attending manual and technical classes. Tolmake a full comparison it would be necessary to take into account the work done by the manual-training high schools, and that done by the Lewis Institute (for the practical training of boys and girls) and by the Armour Institute, one of the best-equipped institutions for higher technical education in the United States. Apprentice Schools. These schools represent an attempt to give something that is an equivalent for the industrial-improvement schoolsHtof Germany or the trade schools in Switzerland; but so far their success is small. The idea seems to be an excellent one ; but, notwithstanding that attendance is by law compulsory, there is apparently great difficulty in securing the attendance of the majority of apprentices. The law requires employers in any trade in which classes are constituted to send their apprentices to school for three months in each year ; and by mutual agreement the classes are held during the months of January, February, andfMarch. The method in which an apprentice school is constituted will be evident from the following notice appearing in the Chicago Board of Education Bulletin of the 21st December, 1903 :— " School for Apprentices. " The Committee on School Management reports that it is in receipt of a communication from the representatives of the Joliet Board of Arbitration, of the Chicago Masons and Builders' Association, and the United Order of Bricklayers and Stonemasons' Union, requesting that the Board of