E.—s

60

that no financial assistance is provided by the City and County Councils for increasing the usefulness of the school. The Board's thanks are due to Mr. Cawthorn for a donation of £30 to the funds of the school. The attendance tit Westport Technical School was quite satisfactory up to the commencement of the industrial trouble towards the end of the year. The day engineeringclasses, which are a feature of this institution, had the small roll number of ten for the year. I wish to again emphasize the necessity for a proper recognition of the work of the engineering school by the Eailway and Marine Departments. The training afforded to the students is admittedly more thorough than that gained through apprenticeship in the ordinary way, and yet at the present time the students who attend the school cannot count the time spent at the school as part of their apprenticeship term. The matter has been brought under notice several times, and should now be rectified without further delay. Extract from the Report of the Inspectors of Schools. Various branches of elementary handwork have been recognized in fifty-eight schools, as compared with forty-eight in our last return. The number of schools doing paper-folding is the same as that of last year. In the case of every other branch more general ti-eatment has prevailed. The ten schools in which needlework is recognized are in charge of male sole teachers, and the classes are taken by visiting teachers. All the other branches of handwork and manual training except cookery, woodwork, ironwork, and dairy-work are taught by members of the regular staff. The number of schools taking manual training has increased to fifty-five,, and the following were the classes receiving instruction: Metal-work, 7; woodwork, 10; cookery, 24; elementary agriculture, 41; physiology and first aid, 18; dairy-work, 12; swimming and lifesaving, 14; physical measurements, 6; elementary chemistry, 1. Trie subjects taken by permanent instructors from the Technical staff were treated at the manual-training centres of Nelson, Wakefield, Motueka, JVVestport, and Reefton. Under the new regulations it will now be compulsory for ail the boys in Standards V and VI who are out of reach of one of these centres to take where practicable elementary agriculture, and for the girls to take practical home science. Physiology and first aid and swimming and life-saving may still-be taken as subjects under the Manual and Technical Regulations. Much of the matter treated of under the former heading may be dealt with either as science or in the course of lessons on health. The teaching of swimming in our high-grade schools has received an additional fillip from, the opening of public baths at Westport and Reefton. The lack of such conveniences in Nelson City is still unfortunately put forth as an excuse for neglecting to give the girls of the local school similar instruction. We regret that the subject does not receive as much attention ■as its importance warrants, and that any child should have to leave school without ample opportunity being afforded him to acquire so useful an art. For two of the hottest months of the early year this practice might well supersede all other forms of physical exercise. Classes for the instruction of teachers were held at Nelson in drawing, elementary chemistry, and elementary botany; and at Westport in drawing, elementary chemistry, and elementary physiology and Irygiene. We congratulate the Technical School staff upon their success under the new management, especially the improvement in methods, attendance, and finances, and hope that the time will soon come when the institution will cease to be a drain upon funds that should be devoted to primary education. One feature of the work undertaken, the continuation class, seems to be very little in favour. It may be carried on at any centre, even if no technical school has been established, but probably the smallness of the capitation fee prevents the formation of any but large classes. Extract fbom the Report of the Director of Technical Education. Manual-training cla.sses were conducted at the Nelson, Wakefield, and Motueka centres under special instructors in woodwork and cookery, and were well and regularly attended, and did good work. The appointment of Mr. G. Coleman as assistant enabled the classes at Wakefield to run for the first time a lull year's course of sixty hours. The present arrangement for the hop-picking holidays considerably disorganized the work during the early part of the year. It is to be regretted that the Board were unable to see their way to the establishing of classes in woodwork for the boys at Motueka on similar lines to the cookery classes for girls. During the year an extension of the woodwork-room in connexion with the Nelson Technical School was made, and a small addition was also made to the art-room. These improvements were much needed, and will greatly tend to the comfort and to greater efficiencj' in working. The numbers of children from the public schools attending at the various centres for instruction in woodwork and cookery during the year were as follows: Woodwork —Nelson centre, 152; Wakefield centre, 72: Cookery —Nelson centre, 160; Wakefield centre, 60; Motueka centre, .'S4 : total, 478. Interest in technical education in the Nelson District continues to grow, as evidenced by the increased attendance at all classes. A large number of students have taken up definite courses of work. Unfortunately, the accountancy class, which in the past had been such a successful one, had to be abandoned at the end of the first term owing to the number of students being insufficient to warrant its continuance. The regulations requiring candidates for the Accountancy Examination to first obtain their Matriculation are largely responsible for the falling-away in this class. The plumbers' class also had to be abandoned owing to the lack of interest shown by the students. Probably under the improved conditions this class will prove more successful during the session 1914. Such a class as this, whilst absolutely essential and practically the only source available where the youth may obtain that knowledge, theoretical and practical, necessary to enable him to practise his calling, cannot from the nature of the work possibly be a large class, and therefore self-supporting, in a small centre like Nelson. Much benefit generally would be