E.—l

10

Number to whom has been granted a certificate of proficiency .. 29 „ „ competency in S6 .. 5 Total .. .. .. .. .. .. ..34 Number of schools at which Maori scholars were in attendance, 551. In the above table it is a matter of comment that so few Maori scholars reached the higher standards. A comparison between this table and that shown on page 29 will at once show that Native schools compare much better in this respect. The reason, no doubt, is that in a school where there are only one or two Maori children among a hundred or more Europeans the education of a Maori is apt to be left to take care of itself. Again, if the above table is compared with Table B, appearing on page 5, it will be noticed that over a third of the pupils of, say, twelve years and upwards in preparatory classes and Standard I are Maoris. While this is no doubt due in part to the fault referred to above, it is also to a great extent accountable by the fact that many Maoris, living in remote districts, never enter the walls of a school until they are ten or eleven years of age, or even older. No Native schools were handed over to Education Boards during the year, but the attendance of Maoris has risen considerably since last year. The policy is steadily followed of gradually transferring Native schools to the Boards as the extension of European settlement and the ability of the Maoris to speak English and to adapt themselves to European customs render the field suitable for the ordinary machinery of education. It is part of the same policy to assimilate the programme of work in Native schools as nearly as possible to that in public schools, and to make no distinction in point of salary between teachers in the two classes of schools. Europeans in Native Schools. (E.-3.— Table H4.) There were 518 European children attending Native village schools at the end of the year. Children intermediate in blood between half-caste and European are reckoned as European. The following table shows the age, sex, and classification, of these children : —

Table Cb. —European Scholars attending Native Schools at the end of December Quarter, 1911.

Private Primary Schools. By section 170 of the Education Act, 1908, the teachers or managers of any private primary school may apply to have the school inspected, and the school thereupon becomes " subject to inspection," and no education given to children between the ages of seven and fourteen is deemed efficient, so as to be legal ground for exemption from attendance at a public school, unless it is given at home or in a school subject to inspection. There is therefore indirectly a compulsion on all private primary schools to become subject to inspection. Such private schools

Class P. St. S2. S3. s. S5. Sβ. 17. Total. Years. I ■S ill 111 I £ .23 w 5 I i 3 1 s 5 and under 6 .. 6 „ 7 .. 7 „ 8 .. 8 „ 9 .. 9 „ 10 .. .0 „ 11 .. .1 „ 12 .. .2 „ 13 .. .3 „ 14 .. 4 „ 15 .. i5 and over 20 11 38 26 29 20 15 13 13 6 2 4 1 1 2 4 9 7 4 1 1 7 3 6 1 5 7 13 8 4 2 1 1 1 5 12 8 3 5 3 5 7 2 1 1 6 6 4 7 1 1 2 8 7 5 2 ] 1 6 11 3 1 5 3 5 2 2 3 5 8 6 2 1 1 10 5 7 2 2 1 3 3 6 2 20 40 38 37 37 22 26 25 17 16 8 11 28 28 21 31 28 27 21 21 12 4 i 2 io 4 4 3 1 Totals i 118 81 27 18 40 32 24 23 27 22 18 25 25 16 7 15 286 232