E.—l

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The following are some of the figures for 1911 in regard to free places in secondary schools :— Number of secondary schools giving free tuition .. .. 29 Total roll number in these schools, excluding lower departments 4,608 Number of free-place holders, 1911 .. .. .. .. 4,021 1910 .. .. .. .. 3,685 Free-place holders as a percentage of roll number, 1911 .. 87 per cent. 1910 .. 75 Total annual payment by Treasury for free places .. .. £43, 6SO Cost to Treasury per free pupil, 1911 .. .. .. £10 17 0 1910 .. .. .. £11 0 11 It will thus be seen that there are now very few pupils—only 13 in every 100 — who pay fees for admission into secondary schools. That the free-place system has undoubtedly been fully taken advantage of by the people of New Zealand is evidenced by the enormous increase in free places in the last few years. In 1903 there were 1,600 free pupils at secondary schools; now the number has increased by more than 150 per cent. In order to arrive at the total number of pupils in New Zealand receiving free secondary instruction it will be necessary to include also 156 other holders of scholarships or exhibitions granted by these schools or by endowed secondary schools not coming under the conditions for free places, 1,777 pupils in attendance at district high schools, almost all of whom were free pupils, receiving free tuition at an average cost to the Government of £9 19s. 2d. per pupil, 128 Maori pupils receiving free education in Maori secondary schools, and 1,260 holders of free places in technical schools. There is thus an approximate total of 7,342 pupils receiving free secondary education in the Dominion, exclusive of those holders of free places in technical schools who were art students or evening students, or were taking courses which may be more approximately described as technical than as secondary. The following table gives a summary of the various secondary free places at the end of the year for which payment was made by Government:— Free Places in December, 1910 and 1911. , 1910. , , 1911. , (i.) Secondary schools— Boys. Girls. Total. Boys. Girls. Total. (a.) junior free pupils ... 1,468 1,193 2,661 1,610 1,322 2,932 (b.) Senior free pupils ... 578 446 1,024 599 490 1,089 Total 2,046 1,639 3,685 2,209 1,812 4,021 (ii.) District high schools ... 955 963 1,918 867 910 1,777 (iii.) Maori secondary schools .. 51 83 134 48 80 128 (iv.) Technical day-schools ... 505 639 1,144 552 708 1,260 Grand total ... 3,557 3,324 6,881 3,676 3,510 7,186 In the above table (in the case of the secondary schools and district high schools) the roll at the end of the year has been taken; a fairer estimate of the number of persons receiving free secondary .education in public institutions would be obtained by taking the average roll throughout the year and including in the total the holders of foundation and private scholarships or exhibitions who received free tuition not paid for by Government. We obtain thus the following approximate figures :— Number receiving Free Secondary Education in 1911. Secondary schools ... ... ... ... ... ... 4,221 District high schools ... ... ... ... ... ... 2,090 Technical day-schools ... ... ... ... ... ... 1,260 Maori secondary schools ... ... ... ... ... ... 128 Total ... ... ... ... ... 7,699 The corresponding number for 1910 may be estimated as 7,540, showing an increase for the year 1911 of 159 in the number in the Dominion who are receiving free secondary education.