59

E.—s

to students in New'Zealandi Four of these came to teachers in this district; Eighty-four teachers andprobationers,<includiiig"several teachers from private schools, were also present at the Easter classes, where first aid and ambulance, botany and nature-study, agricultural chemistry, model-drawing, and design were among the subjects dealt with. An additional room tor science would greatly improve our Technical School. Mr. Bruce met the farmers in conference in several places. Small evening classes met at Blenheim in shorthand, book-keeping. English, arithmetic, and wood-carving. At Canvastown book-keeping, commercial history, commercial geography, commercial arithmetic, and English were taught ; and at Havclock book-keeping, English, and arithmetic. Statement of Receipts and Expenditure for the Year ending 31st December, 1908, in respect of Special Classes conducted at Blenheim, Canvastoic-n, and Havelock. Receipts. £ s. d. | Expenditure. £ s. d. Balance at beginning of year .. .. 92 3 4 ' Salaries of instructors .. .. .. 234 3 7 Capitation on special classes .. .. 84 10 6 Office expenses (including salaries, stationery, Capitation on account of free places.. .. 319 3 &o.) .. .. .. •• " ° „ „ Furniture, fittings, and apparatus .. .. 39 9 3 Advertising and printing .. .. .. 210 0 Material .. .. • ■ .. 310 7 Lighting and heating .. .. .. 18c Grant for training of teachers .. .. 120 0 0 Material for clasß use .. .. ..1749 p ees .. .. 35 16 8 Refund of fees .. .. .. ..200 Cleaning .. .. .. .. .. 1 15 10 Arohitect .. . , .. .. 010 6 'Furniture, fittings, and apparatus .. .. 51 7 6 Balance at end of year .. .. .. 68 510 £379 9 7 £379 9 7 E. Hylton, Secretary. NELSON. Extract from the Report of the Education Board. Manual and Technical. -Instruction has materially developed luring the past year, and the appointment of the Director of Technical Schools has been the means oJ placing the department more in line with the work carried out in larger centres. The Nelson Technical School is remarkably well attended, and the Board trusts that the engineering day-school about to be commenced at Westport will prove of benefit in every way. The number of schools taking manual-training subjects continues to increase, elementary agriculture, woodwork, cookery, swimming, and physical measurement? receiving special attention. The policy of securing, where' possible, the services of efficient permanent instructors is proving advantageous in every way. A commodious laboratory wis during the yeaT added to the NelsonTechnicaf School, and the erection of a Technical School at Weslport commenced. The Director's report will afford fulldetails'of carried on during the year. Extract from the Report of the Inspectors of Schools. Elementary handwork was taken in thirty-six schools, modelling in plasticene and brush drawing being the branches most generally taught, tn fourteen schools controlled by male sole teachers the work is carried on under the Manual and Technical Regulations by paid visiting teachers. Classi b for woodwork cookery, dressmaking, agriculture, physiology and first aid, swimming and life-saving, and physical measurements were recognised in connection with thirty-nine schools. As we have been anticipating such an extension of the system as would place the benefits to be dtrived from a training in these useful branches of manual instruction within reach of all our larger schools, we regret to find that the numbers attending are fewer than previously. The failure to form a cookery clas« at W< Jtporl District High School this year in anticipation of the early completion of the Technical School accounts for x large part of the difference. It is at the district high schools that manual and technical subjects, through their special suitability to pupils who have finished their primary course, need most development. Further encouragement towards the formation of classes is given by a rtcent regulation removing the restriction upon the amount of capitation it is possible to earn by scholars in the secondary department. We notice in last year's report that the Wanganui District could boast of seven district high schools, of which five each possessed a laboratory, woodwork, and cooking-room, and the two others were each shortly to be equipped with a laboratory and a cookeryroom. Our four district high schools have as yet had the advantage of a woodwork and a cookeiyroom at only one of them—Reefton. The chemical laboratory recently erected at the Nelson Technical School is now practically equipped and ready for use. Its fittings, well designed and neatly finished under Mr. Bruce's personal supervision, afford every convenience for thorough science-teaching. The study of elementary agriculture, a course especially suited to a large part of the district, is, under the Instructor's direction, extending, thirty school gardens having now been established. Some excellent products of the school garden have been exhibited at local agricultural and horticultural shows, and, as a mark of appreciation as well as for encouragement, the horticultural societies of Marlborough have for that district generously voted a substantial sum as prizes, both for children's exhibits and for the bestmanaged gardens. ( The Instructor considers that experimental plots might be further developed, and suggests that each class should specialise in regard to the growth of such cereals grasses, or fruittrees as would best suit the requirements of the district. In addition to the work of the vegetable garden and of the experimental plot, the girls especially, by the cultivation of flowers and shrubs, have