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is being shown at the Nelson and Westport Schools. At the beginning of the year the Board was fortunate in securing the services of Mr. F. J. C. Cockburn, A.R.C.A., as art master at the Nelson School. new art-room was built, and a large number of art students were enrolled. The day Trades School at Nelson, inaugurated at the beginning of the year, did not attract many students, and it may become necessary.to discontinue these classes for a time. The attendance at the afternoon and evening classes, both at Nelson and Westport, have been very good, and the Board feels that the instruction imparted is proving of great value to the community. At Reefton and Wakefield school classes in woodwork and cookery have been conducted ; woodwork is also taught at the Stoke Orphanage by the Board's instructor, and classes in dressmaking have been held in the Waimeas, and commercial classes at Motueka. Provision has been made for commencing classes in cookery at Motueka this year, a room having been built for the purpose. A science-room has been erected at Takaka, portion of the cost being provided by donations received from the Takaka County Council and funds raised by the District High School Committee. Classes for teachers were held at Nelson and Westport. The Board's thanks are due to the Westport Borough Council, Buller County Council, Westport Harbour Board, Inangahua County Council, Takaka County Council, and Nelson City Council, and others who have donated funds towards the maintenance of technical instruction. Extract from the Report of the Inspectors of Schools. Classes in the following branches of elementary handwork have been recognized in 37 schools : Plasticine-modelling, brush drawing, elementary design and colour-work, paper-folding, freearm drawing, bricklaying, cardboard-modelling, needlework. A number of other schools carry on some branch of handwork. In such schools the working-conditions often prevent the fulfilling of the conditions necessary for earning the capitation grant. In this connection a large number of schools have been equipped for freearm drawing. The subject is a favourite one with the pupils, and excellent work has been done, more especially in several of our infant schools. Fifty-five schools again receive instruction in manual training, special centres for the first three subjects having been formed at Nelson, Wakefield, Westport, and Reefton. The following branches of work have been taken up : Ironwork, woodwork, cookery, agriculture, physiology and first aid, swimming, physical measurements, elementary chemistry, dairy-work. The chief increase has taken place in the formation of 6 new classes for instruction in dairy-work, 8 schools now taking a combined course of agriculture and dairy-work. With the exception of Murchison and Karamea, each of the other schools carrying on this instruction was visited in alternate weeks by Mr. Bruce, instructor in agriculture, under whose direction the work was conducted. In the case of the two schools mentioned, situated in outlying parts of the district, the work was carried on by the teachers after inauguration by the instructor. The pupils have shown much interest in the work, which has been carried out with considerable skill and success. It is proposed to extend the work in the district high schools over a two-years course, for which a suitable programme of work will be issued. The erection of a science-room at Takaka and the equipment of the room at Motueka will provide very necessary facilities for the conduct of this work. Already a demand for further classes in this subject begins to show some appreciation of the effort to embrace instruction in touch with the environment of the pupils. Good work continues to be done by many schools in elementary agriculture. In the smaller schools the lack of simple apparatus for carrying out indoor experiments is a distinct disadvantage. The practice of keeping notebooks with the pupil's own records of the work we hope to see universally followed. Classes for the instruction of teachers have again been held at Nelson and Westport, the subjects taken being cookery, woodwork, and various branches of drawing. Classes in chemistry were held at the Nelson Technical School and at Motueka. In Nelson the attendance was quite incommensurate with the advantages accruing from a course of practical work in such a subject. In the middle of the year Mr. Cockburn, the art instructor from the Nelson Technical School, visited Westport and conducted demonstration lessons in drawing as prescribed in the syllabus as a school subject. His instruction, though extending over a brief period, gave many teachers a fresh insight into the subject, and we were pleased to notice in several schools manifestations of the practical application of the principles demonstrated. ■ Extract from the Report of the Director of Technical Instruction. Manual-training classes at specially equipped centres and under special instructors were conducted at Nelson, Wakefield, Westport, and Reefton. At Nelson woodwork and cookery classes for the town schools, Stoke, and Richmond were well and regularly attended, and did good work. At Westport cookery and ironwork classes were conducted, but the attendance thereat, though improving in regularity, has not yet reached a satisfactory stage. Climatic conditions doubtless contribute considerably to this state of affairs, especially with the country classes, which have to journey long distances by rail. In the ironwork classes a change of programme is contemplated, whereby pupils will take more sheetmetal work, for which a preliminary course in cardboard-modelling in schools would form a good foundation. This amended course will prove of greater educational value in assisting in the teaching of arithmetic and geometry, and will tend to arouse greater interest on the part of the pupils. To cater efficiently and fully for classes at the smaller centres at Reefton and Wakefield presents many difficulties, some of which seem impossible to overcome in the near future. During the year the classes at the two centres named ran for nearly fourteen weeks, three hours per week being devoted to instruction. Naturally the work falls short of what is being done elsewhere, but financial considerations and the inability to devote more of the time of the permanent staff to these centres have been the stumblingblocks to more extended courses being carried out. Thanks to generous financial assistance from the Inangahua County Council, Reefton can be run without loss, but the same cannot be said of the Wakefield centre. However, with an assistant cookery instructress and a pupil-teacher in the woodwork department, the latter place may be used to more advantage during the coming year.