47

E.—s

The exhibition was most successful, and was visited by hundreds of interested people. About a dozen students who have completed a two-year Junior Free Place course are to be recommended to the Department for Senior Free Places. Mr. Isaac, Inspector of Technical Schools, visited the August last, and his advice and recommendations were much appreciated. The number of individual students for the year was 535, and the average weekly attendances about 720. The staff has worked well during'the year, and the success of students in examinations and competitions is largely due to the interest, skill, and care with which the instructors have attended to their duties. The thanks of the Technical School authorities are due to the numerous well-wishers of the school for donations, and to the Press generally for ready assistance given in regard to advertising, &c. F. D. Opie, Director.

Statement of Receipts and Expenditure for the Year ending 31st December, 1911, in respect of Special Classes conducted at Palmerston North by the Palmerston North High School Board.

WELLINGTON. Extract from the Report of the Education Board. Capitation on account of manual instruction was earned by 125 schools in 1911, as compared with 118 in 1910. Well-kept gardens are found in the grounds of several schools which for various reasons are unable to qualify for capitation in agriculture. The Board's Inspectors report an improvement in the quality of the work done by the pupils who undertook the rural course. A movement at Petone for the introduction of the rural course into an industrial centre, and a second movement for the establishment of an agricultural college for the Wairarapa, so that the district high school rural course may be continued to a satisfactory conclusion, are clear evidences of the favourable impression created by the rural work already accomplished. The courses of instruction held for teachers were as follows :At Wellington —Art and handwork classes by Miss Lee, assisted by Miss B. MacKenzie ; physical measurements and physiology by Mr. Stuckey ; woodwork and cardboard-modelling by Mr. Howe. At Masterton —Drawing by Mr. Grant ; physiology and hygiene for women by Miss Lazarus. At Greytown —A fortnight's continuous instruction in agriculture and nature-study, undertaken by twentyone teachers, under the guidance of Messrs. Davies and Cumming. At Pahiatua—A course of lessons in agriculture by Mr. Cumming. But for the unsuitability of the railway time-table the attendance at the Wairarapa classes would have been much larger than was possible in the circumstances. Extract from the Report of the Inspectors of Schools. Steady progress is being made is , handwork and in such branches of drawing as freearm and brush work. The appointment of an additional instructor in woodwork enabled the number of classes to be increased. In the practical work of cookery and dressmaking a steady advance is being made, and when the lady selected in England for the purpose of supervising the subjects of a domestic course takes up her duties we look forward to a considerable improvement in the instruction of such subjects as physiology, domestic economy, and hygiene, and we hope to see laundry-work added to the programme. When handwork was added to the syllabus it was given a separate place in the work and programme of the school, and treated as an isolated subject introduced for the purpose of forming " a counter-irritant to bookwork." But as teachers gradually perceived that, by correlating different branches of handwork with other subjects of the syllabus, the general work made a steady advance, manual instruction gradually came to be looked upon more as a method than as a subject, and as a method of applying educational principles it has certainly justified its existence. In giving grants for manual instruction certain restrictions as to the time given to practical work have been laid down. These limitations were probably justified while the work was new, but the time has now come when some of them might well be dispensed with. Their retention tends to make a teacher treat the subject as isolated, and hampers him to some extent in applying the methods of manual instruction to other subjects. We are not suggesting a lessening of the time given to practical work, but in cases where handwork has been correlated with such subjects as, say, geography or arithmetic, these restrictions are apt to encourage the teacher to subordinate the interests of the main subject to a lesson on handwork.

Receipts. £ a. d. Capitation on special classes .. .. 360 0 0 Capitation on account of free places .. 164 0 0 Buildings .. .. .. 350 0 0 Furniture, fittings, and apparatus .. 272 7 10 Material .. .. .. .. 76 5 5 Subsidies on voluntary contributions .. 152 2 3 Fees .. .. .. .. 420 9 6 Voluntary contributions .. .. .. 161 10 0 High SchoolFees, wool-classing, veterinary science, and sheep-shearing classes .. .. 17 17 0 Material for classes .. .. .. 1 10 0 Art master's salary .. .. .. 50 0 0 Woodwork instructor's salary .. .. 15 15 0 Sales of material .. .. .. 10 18 5 Contractor for plans, engineering-shop .. 5 5 0 Balance at end of year .. .. .. 403 3 2 Expenditure. £ s. d. Balance at beginning of year .. .. 224 6 10 Salaries of instructors .. .. .. 901 2 6 Office expenses (including salaries, stationery, Director, &o.).. .. .. 311 7 11 Advertising and printing.. .. .. 34 7 3 Lighting and heating .. .. .. 58 19 10 Insurance and repairs .. .. .. 49 16 10 Maintenance .. .. .. .. 43 2 6 Examinations, &c. .. .. .. 10 0 Material for class use .. .. .. 69 19 7 Telephone and sundries .. .. .. 17 2 9 Bank interest .. .. .. .. 3 11 0 Contracts (new buildings, additions, &c.) .. 353 12 0 Arohitect, &0. .. .. .. .. 22 12 10 Furniture, fittings, and apparatus .. 293 1 9 Deposit on engineering-workshop site .. 62 0 0 Interest on same .. .. .. 15 0 0 £2,461 3 7 £2,461 3 7 William Hunter, Secretary.