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Statement of Receipts and Expenditure for the Year ending 31st December, 1909, in respect of Special Classes conducted at Ingleivood. Receipts. £ s. d. Expenditure. £ s. d. Balance at beginning of year .. .. 11 18 1 Salaries of instructors .. .. .. 12 10 0 Capitation on special classes .. .. 8 2 9 Office expenses (including salaries, staFurniture, fittings, apparatus .. .. 018 0 tionery, &c.) .. .. .. .. 718 0 Fees .. .. .. .. ■ 22 0 0 Advertising and printing .. .. .. 2 4 6 Voluntary contributions .. .. .. 48 17 0 Contracts (new buildings, additions, &c.) .. 39 15 10 Balance at end of year .. .. .. 29 7 6 £91 15 10 £91 15 10 R. G. Whetter, for Secretary. WANGANUI. Extract from the Report of the Education Board. Mannul and Technical. —From the Superintendent's report it will be seen that satisfactory progress is being made in this department of the Board's work. In dealing with this matter the Board's purpose is threefold —(1) to extend the advantages of secondary (technical) education to places remote from centres ; (2) to co-ordinate primary and secondary instruction ; and (3) to make the work of the technical schools and classes so attractive that parents will not be satisfied with a primary course alone. The Board believes that somewhat has been gained in each of the three directions. The question of compulsion has also occupied the Board's attention, and the conviction is growing that in the larger towns, at any rate, some form of judicious compulsion will be found necessary. The best of the pupils do not require any other inducement than suitable classes and efficient instructors, but the interests of the great majority must be considered the victims of ignorance, apathy, and selfishness—concerning whom an English nobleman recent ly wrote, " Between the period of a child's life during which the State spends immense sums upon his education and the time when these children take up their positions as adults in the life of the State, there yawns a chasm in which much of that gained with great labour and at great expense—knowledge, discipline, health, character—is lost." The Board is aware that the question of compulsion may be complicated by the introduction of a system of compulsory military training, but it is assured that it is not beyond the wisdom of the Legislature to see that our young people shall become not one-sided, but all-round citizens. Since the Board submitted its last annual report the new Technical School at Hawera was opened by the Minister of Education (the Hon. G. Fowlds) on the 27th July. The people of Hunterville have, at their own cost, with the aid of the statutory subsidy, erected a building for the purposes of technical instruction, and the residents of Pohaugina are at the present time pursuing a. like desirable end. In administrating the schools the Board has had great difficulty in making both ends meet on the allowance made by the Department. Indeed, if there were no other sources of revenue, our schools would speedily become insolvent, as it takes all fees and capitation grants to pay the instructors' salaries, leaving nothing for maintenance. Fortunately, local bodies and private citizens have responded nobly to the calls made on them for assistance, from one end of the district to the other, and the schools as a whole are paying their way. The Board feels that the Department should make an allowance for supervision and maintenance of technical schools, as it is ridiculous to compel it to rely on voluntary assistance for departmental charges. The system of government of the three districts into which the education district has been divided is working satisfactorily, and it is found that it answers the twofold purpose of giving local control and arousing interest and enthusiasm amongst those immediately benefited, while the contributions from year to year from local bodies and. private individuals must constitute a record for the Dominion. The phenomenal success of the wool-classing instruction, by Mr. J. T. Cahill, has proved to farmers that there is immediate money value in technical education. A large number of instances are available where exceptionally good prices have been obtained from the sale of wool classed by his pupils, and it is to be hoped that this object-lesson will prove effective in breaking down prejudices against systematic instruction in rural occupations. The demand for classes is so general that the Board has been compelled to appoint a second instructor, and Mr. T. McGregor, of Napier, has been selected by the committee of stud-sheep breeders, who were responsible for the appointment of Mr. Cahill —viz., Messrs. G. C. Wheeler, of Stanway ; E. Short, of Waituna : and .1. Knight, of Makino. The Board is indebted to these gentlemen for the trouble they have taken in the matter, and also to those farmers all over the district who have placed their woolsheds at the disposal of the instructor, and contributed fleeces for the use of the pupils. Agriculture and Dairy-work. —Much interest continues to be taken in these branches of instruction both by the pupils and the parents. At the Manawatu Agricultural and Pastoral Association Show a large number of our pupils entered for the milk-testing competition, and one —an Ashhurst pupil— obtained the pride of place by securing from the Agricultural Department's experts, as examiners, a total of 98 per cent, of marks. In many cases children taught in our primary schools are intrusted with the duty of checking the value of milk-production by individual cows, and the results are utilized in selecting or rejecting profitable or unprofitable cows in a herd. The Manawatu Agricultural and Pastoral Association devotes much attention to the primary-school phases of agricultural training. The Feilding Agricultural and Pastoral Association gives annually prizes for the best school gardens in their district, and the judges, in awarding the first three prizes to Colyton, 170 marks (out of a possible total of 200) ; llalcombe, 156 ; and Cheltenham, 150 marks, say, inter alia. " the results form, in our opinion, a striking