E.-l

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Civil Service Junior and allied examinations, 2,369; for the Civil Service Senior Examination, 443; for Certificate Examinations, 1,482. The Department's examination for Junior National Scholarships is now used b}' all the Education Boards of the Dominion for the award of their Junior Scholarships, superseding thus without exception any examination locally conducted in earlier years for this purpose. For the award of their Senior Scholarships the Boards commonly, but not exclusively, use the Civil Service Junior Examination. Apart from this extension of its functions, the Civil Service Junior Examination is employed for a variety of purposes. Either in its proper competitive form, or with certain modifications in selected subjects to meet the needs of a non-competitive qualification, it is thus used not only as an entrance examination for the Civil Service of the Dominion, but as a scholarship examinanation, an examination for the Senior Free Place qualification in secondary schools and district high schools, an examination for pupil-teachers of the second or third years, and a qualifying examination for the probationer appointments recently instituted under the provisions of the Education Act Amendment Act, 1908. The following table gives a comparative statement of the number of candidates examined under the principal groupings during the past four years : — Junior National and Education Board 1905-6. 1906-7. 1907-8. 1908-9. 1909-10. Scholarships and Junior Free Places 790 1,458 1,475 1,765 2,214 Civil Service Junior, Senior Free Places, Education Board Senior Scholarships, First Pupil-teachers ... ... 1,305 2,123 2,173 2,158 2,369 Teachers D and C ... ... ... 749 1,051 1,184 1,223 1,482 Civil Service Senior ... ... 141 183 231 373 443 2,985 4,815 5,063 5,519 6,508 Further particulars are given in E.-8. Teachers' Superannuation Fund. The Teachers' Superannuation Act, which was passed by Parliament on the 31st October, 1905, and came into force on the Ist January, 1906, was amended by a supplementary Act on the 29th October, 1906. Every person who at the date of the coining into operation of the principal Act was permanently employed for not less than twenty hours a week in the Education service had the option of electing within six months to become a contributor to the fund. Those who so elected became " original members," and, as such, are entitled to special benefits. A person who did not so elect to join the fund at its commencement might, however, be allowed to join it on certain conditions to be imposed by the Superannuation Board. AH teachers in public schools and in Native and other schools under the control of the Education Department who were subsequently permanently employed were compelled to become contributors as from date of appointment: other persons in the Education service had the option of becoming contributors. On the 10th October, 1908, the former Acts were repealed by the Public Service Classification and Superannuation Amendment Act, 1908, Part I; but existing contributors were allowed six months in which to elect to remain subject to the provisions of the former Acts if they so desired. On the 24th December, 1909, this Act was amended, providing among other things for the extension of the time allowed in which to make the election referred to above to the 30th June, 1910 ; the Act also fixed a maximum retiring-allowance of £300 per annum in the case of persons who become contributors to the fund after the passing of the Act (24th December, 1909). The chief difference between the Act of 1908 and the former Acts affected the basis of calculation of the retiring-allowance of a contributor. The retiringallowance was to be one-sixtieth of the average rate of salary received during the three years next preceding retirement, for each year of service, provided that in