13

E.—l

Conveyance by Road and Water. —By section 44 (c) of the Education Act, Boards are empowered to arrange, where necessary, for the conveyance of children to and from school, and conveyance by road or water is accordingly arranged in districts where the population is widely scattered, and the necessary facilities for conveyance are obtainable. For children under ten living more than three miles away from school by the nearest road, and for children of ten and upwards living more than four miles away, the Department makes the Boards an allowance of 6d. for each return trip—that is, the conveyance of one child to and from school on one day. No claim is entertained in the case of children riding to school on horses or bicycles. The Taranaki, Grey, and Westland Boards did not arrange for conveyance. In the more closely settled districts of the South Island — North Canterbury, South Canterbury, Otago, and Southland —this plan for conveyance was very much more widely adopted than in any other district in New Zealand. The total amount paid in 1911 to ten Education Boards for conveyance byroad and water amounted to £4,297, as against £3,322 in the previous year. The total amount paid for conveyance of pupils to public Lcliools in 1911 by rail, road, and water was therefore £17,143, as against £15,758 in 1910. Board of School-children. —In aid of the board of any child who, on account of distance or the absence of roads, has to live away from home in order to attend a public school, an allowance of 2s. 6d. per week is similarly made. In 1911 £354 was paid for the board of school-children, as against £269 in 1910. Free Class-books. The system of free class-books has now been in operation for four years. The preparatory classes and Standards I and II were supplied during 1909, Standard 111 during 1910, Standard IV during 1911, and last session a sum was included in the vote for elementary education to defray the cost of books to be supplied to Standards V and VI, and also to replace books in all standards as they are worn out. In deference to representations that some teachers considered it desirable that pupils should have a reading-book for home preparation, Boards were given the option of (1) supplying the miscellaneous readers free to pupils, or (2) requiring the pupils to provide the miscellaneous readers (except in necessitous cases orjan cases where a newly entered pupil has already purchased a different miscellaneous reader), and under certain conditions supplying in lieu thereof paper to be used in school instead of slates. The conditions of the grants provide also that after provision has been made for the supply of specified class-books, the balance of the grant may be spent on approved books for libraries suitable for class reading or for individual reading in school or at home. As the grants are on a liberal scale Boards should be able to provide schools with suitable class or school libraries, which should foster in the pupils a desire for reading. The " School Journal " and other Publications, Charts, &c. The School Journal has now completed its fifth year of issue, the first number being published in May, 1907. It is published in three parts—viz., Part I (sixteen pages) for Classes I and II; Part II (sixteen pages) for Classes 111 and IV ; and Part 111 (thirty-two pages) for Classes V and VI. There are no issues for the months of December and January, but the November number is enlarged to provide readingmatter until the schools close, about the middle of December. Public schools, Native schools, special schools (such as industrial schools), and certain other institutions more or less under departmental control or supervision are supplied free with a number of copies sufficient to provide each pupil in the standard classes with a copy of the appropriate part. An increasing number of private schools purchase copies at the rate of Jd. per copy for Part I, and Id. per copy for each of Parts II and 111. While the School Journal aims primarily at being instructive rather than recreative, there is ample evidence that each monthly number is eagerly looked for and