E.—2.

Appendix C.

sational lessons that are carried on in some schools are highly beneficial to children, and the " School Newspaper Record," in which the best pupil in a senior class writes down his composition, is a feature that might well become general. Woodville District High School has kept its record newspaper for a number of years. The fostering of manual instruction in woodwork, elementary agriculture, cookery, and dressmaking is causing much less time to be given to other essential work. As far as it is understood, nature-study is taught in the schools, and if some better plan than the present capitation grants were adopted to foster manual instruction and nature-study in all schools, a vast amount more good might be done than is at present accomplished. Some excellent school-gardens and experimental plots are to be found throughout the district, among which must be specially named Matamau, Otane, and Petane, and a score of the teachers might be named who have qualified to carry on instruction in woodwork and elementary agriculture. Manual work popular where carried on, but where it would be perhaps most useful there no instruction is given. In every country school it is desirable to foster an agricultural bias, and but for the capitation spectre this and other subjects of manual instruction might occupy a most important place in the training of the children. If manual instruction is considered worthy of a place in the schools, provision should be made for it in all the Board schools, irrespective of size or locality. Military drill continues to form a regular part of school training in the senior classes of the larger schools, but instruction is also given to the girls in calisthenics, and to the younger pupils ?n physical exercises. Breathing exercises have come to be recognized as a necessary part of physical training, and they are of undoubted benefit to the children. During my absence in p]ngland last year a large amount of additional duty was thrown upon my colleague, Mr. Smith, and Mr. Crawshaw, the Secretary, but the duty was cheerfully undertaken, and I wish here to express my thanks to them and to each member of the Board for the sympathy and consideration shown during my term of absence on sick-leave. To have returned to duty in good health is something, but the travelling in so extensive a district requires, m my opinion the services of a much younger man than I am, and. with the approval of the Board, I propose to retire from active duty early next year. In the meantime my efforts will be directed to the best interests of education in the district, and I hope, with the help of my colleague, to leave the schools in a high state of working efficiency. In conclusion, I would add that, although during my absence from New Zealand many public schools in'various countries were visited, which were handsomer, larger, and more luxuriously furnished than one is accustomed to see in this country, I met no teachers more earnest or more able than are met with in New Zealand, and I certainly saw no better results than one usually sees in this district and in other parts of the Dominion. Comparisons are necessarily difficult, because the social and industrial conditions are so different in Great Britain and other co-related countries, including our own. Our children are brought up under better and freer conditions than exist at Home. Formalism and class distinctions are less pronounced with us, but under a freer discipline the children of the Dominions are as manly, as thoughtful, and as apt as in any of the countries visited. What is wanted just now is the broadening of the teachers' aims and ideals, and to do this something must be done to help them to visit other lands, so as to act as incentives to progressive thought here. Education is the watchword in all civilized lands, but that land will best succeed that anticipates the world of to-morrow and adapts the education of its future citizens to the coming change. 1 am, &c, H. Hill, The Chairman, Board of Education, Napier. Chief Inspector of Schools.

MARLBOROUGH. _ Blenheim, March, 1912. I have the honour to present my eighth general report on the schools of Marlborough Number of Schools .-During 1911 there were ninety-five schools open. Eleven of these operated less than four quarters. Eighty-eight were open at the close of the year, and the tables oTrumbers in standards and ages are compiled from the schedules returned by these. Wfction —Visits of inspection were paid to ninety-one public schools, five private schools, a + Tor-l nical «chool Blenheim. " Annual visits," in the latter half of the year, were made S> eStSS pubtthoob and five private schools. In December Standard VI was also examined my myself at nine centres. Various other visits were paid to observe teachers classes to test pupil-teachers and probationers, and to meet the teachers assembled in LS Only three schools, none of which operated more than two months, were unvisited. In future a number of the smaller schools will probably be met only once in the year. _ Observations made at First VisiT.-In too many schools clocks were not in working-order. Tn five instances the registers were inaccurate. Instruction 7 of the Examination Register was !r«S entlvElected; if the scheme-of-work book were fairly detailed, a reference to it would Ir f The 100-book is a valuable historical record that should be carefully posted up to date. Organization was usually satisfactory, but in several schools the average age of Class P. was U . lg h a Timetables generally provide a fair distribution of time and due sequence of subjects.

XXVII