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example of what may be accomplished by persistent effort, and suggest the possibilities of intensive cultivation." At one school (Cheltenham) special prizes were given for home gardens kept by schoolchildren, and the competition proved the genuineness of the instruction given at the school. The Wanganui Horticultural Society also fosters school gardens by giving prizes liberal in number and value for the products of school gardens, while the Feilding Horticultural Society has followed suit. In addition, numbers of vegetables are entered at the various shows in open competition, and our schools are well able to hold their own. Training of Teachers. —Saturday classes for teachers were held continuously throughout the year. At Wanganui —drawing, singing, agricultural botany, physical measurements, handwork and modelling (combined), woodwork, and cookery : at Feilding—drawing, singing, biology, and practical chemistry : at Hawera —drawing, singing, and nature-study : at Taihape —drawing, singing, and agricultural botany : at Palmerston North —drawing. The feature of Mr. Browne's nature-study class at Hawera was the large amount of field-work taken. The meeting-place of the class was changed each Saturday. and thus was it possible for the teachers to study the varying formations and characteristics of the different parts of the district. The whole of the practical work in connection with the biology class at Feilding was taken during the term holidays in September, some sixteen teachers attending five hours a day for four days on end. The Department showed consideration in granting permission for students attending this class to use free-pass railway certificates to enable them to travel to their homes each evening. The roll-numbers of the teachers attending classes at the various centres were as follows : Wanganui, 149 : Feilding, 118 ; Hawera, 55 ; Taihape, 38 ; Palmerston North, 4 : total, 364. Extract prom the Report of the Inspectors of Schools. Nature-study, Science of Agriculture and Dairying, Physical Measurements. —Satisfactory progress is being made in these branches of school-work. It is certain that the pupils of our country schools are being well equipped for secondary training in agriculture ; and it is to the Department's credit that in the provision of a secondary course in rural instruction at district high schools it has anticipated the needs of the farming community. It is to be hoped that all our district high schools will make the establishment of this course a matter of the first consideration. Handwork. —This is the collective name for the studies embraced under drawing, woodwork, cookery, and modelling. It is in this group of subjects that the pupils express themselves visually and tangibly. All modern authorities are agreed that they form a necessary part of education. The least satisfactory of the group in respect of quality is drawing, which at many schools is very indifferently taught. The teacher who aims at mastery in this subject, even if he is not skilful, is an immeasurably better primary-school teacher than he for whom the subject lacks interest. Extract from the Report of the Superintendent of Technical [nstruction. The introduction (this year. 1910) of the special course of agricultural instruction into some district high schools is tin educational measure of the first importance. The course is being taken up al Hawera. Taihape, Feilding, and at the Wanganui Technical School. At some of our district high schools, even in purely agricultural districts, it is not an agricultural training that is desired, but preparation for the Civil Service Examination, a kind of educational work that could be very much better done by private tuition, and not of such a nature as, in itself, to justify the constitution of a district high school. By a stroke of the pen the Department could destroy this anomaly. It has merely to frame a regulation to the effect that the course in agriculture will count towards a pass in the Civil Service Examination, and by consequence become an avenue of admission to the teaching profession. If the course failed to make provision for general culture, one would hesitate to recommend it. but in this respect it is as good as, if not better than, the alternative course. Upon the evidence of the reports both of the directors and instructors, it will, I think, be agreed that development in real, as contrasted with formal, education has been both rapid and sound, and that some progress has been made in the co-ordination of primary, technical, and secondary instruction as given in the district high schools. It may be stated, not as an inference, but as an established fact, that parents now regard some form of secondary or technical training as indispensable if their boys and girls are to make their way in the world with any chance of success. This not only at the centres, but at places more or less remote. Whether from the point of view of the statesman, economist, or educationist, no more inspiriting sight can be seen than young people or. it may be. adults, gathered at an instruction centre from homes more or less distant, after having travelled over roads as often as not dark, difficult, and dirty. For this manifestation of missionary enterprise, for such it is, we are indebted to the zeal of the directors, the ability of the instructors, and, last but not least, to the devotion of some of the primary-school teachers. In view of these facts one feels justified in saying that education is rapidly becoming what it ought to be, part of the life of the people. The reports of the directors speak for themselves. As outstanding features there may be noticed the remarkable success of the wool-classing classes at Feilding and other centres, the opening of the new school at Eawera, and the successful inauguration of technical day classes at Wanganui. Of the efforts of the Technical School Committees it is impossible to speak too highly. If ever there was disinterested work done in the cause of education it is theirs. Again and again, despite the most unpromising outlook. Committees have brought into existence classes that have done themselves and t heir instructors credit. The number of students in individual subjects during the year stood at 4,246, or an increase over last year's number of 1.389. The number for each district was as follows : Central District. 2,051 : Northern District. 1.240: Southern District, 955. The movement set afoot by the