1.—13 a.

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the old Provincial District of Taranaki, the southern part of which was practically inaccessible from New Plymouth when the education districts were constituted in 1877. A large part of it is very closely settled, and much of it can be farmed profitably in smaller areas than it is at present. The population is increasing, and with the utilization of the areas at present unoccupied, or only partially utilized. not only will there be a great increase in prosperity, but the population also must very greatly increase 3. Mr. Hogben.] In your map of the district you put the Waitomo County in the new proposed Taranaki District ? —Yes. 4. Are you not aware that Waitomo County's interests are with Hamilton and the southern part of the Auckland District? Is it not more closely connected, for instance, with Te Awamutu and Te Kuiti on the other hand ?—What we contend is that we can administer it as well as Auckland. 5. Could you administer it as well as Hamilton ?—Of course not. If you made the administrative centre at Te Kuiti they could administer it better than from anywhere else. 6. But Hamilton is the centre in the Bill ? —Yes. 7. With regard to the Hawke's Bay District, you put Tauranga and Opotiki into that district. How would an Inspector who lived at Napier get to Tauranga ? —By steamer or by road. The road goes to Rotorua. 8. How long would it take him to get there ? —Two days, I suppose. 9. Could he not get there in half a day from Auckland ?—Yes. I understood the idea was to make fairly equal areas. If you are going to do that you must make divisions somewhere. 10. The Bill does make such divisions, but accessibility has something to do with it ?—ls it any easier to get to Tauranga from Hamilton than from Auckland ? 11. But it is easier to get from Hamilton to Tauranga than it is from Napier?— Probably. If you make your centre nearer the town it is easier to get to it. 12. How would you get to Opotiki from Napier ? —There are roads. 13. Ido not think you can count on the roads ?— Well, there are steamers. There must be some means. 14. Is it not easier to get to it from Auckland or Hamilton ? —lf they are going from Hamilton there must be a road to Opotiki. 15. You think that Opotiki and Tauranga are reasonably accessible from Napier ?—I think so, yes. 16. Mr. Sidey.] Will you explain in what way your proposal differs from the existing Taranaki District on the map ?—[Witness indicated on map.] 17. You propose to take a number of counties in to the north and also some to the south ?—We propose to take in five in the north and four in the south. 18. You encroach on to the Auckland District on the north and Wanganui District on the south ?- Yes. The Ohura portion used to be in the Taranaki District. 19. Do you undertsand that the chief object in enlarging the district is to give a greater opportunity for promotion to the teachers ? —Yes, and we contend that by our suggested boundaries that would be given. 20. Are you in a position to say whether the Auckland District as it is administered at the present time is not satisfactory ?—lt is impossible for me to answer a question of that kind directly ; but we have some teachers who have been in the Auckland District, and one of them remarked to me not very long ago that when a teacher gets into the backblocks he is lost. 21. You say in your statement that there will be a better area of promotion for teachers in the alteration you propose than at the present time ? —Yes. 22. You recognize that the larger the area the greater opportunity for promotion ?—Well, of course, there is in a sense, but not necessarily. 23. Would it not necessarily be so so long as you include city schools ? —No, the great bulk of the teachers cannot get much higher than Grades IV or Vof the present schedule. I have not worked them out in the new schedule. 24. Supposing the whole of the North Island was put into one district, would not that give greater facilities for promotion to teachers in the North Island ?—I do not think it would, really. Of course, you enter into another question as to whether there should be local self-government. 25. I am viewing it purely from the consideration as regards the opportunity for promotion for teachers, apart altogether from the question of local administration ? —I do not think it makes a great deal of difference. A great many teachers think that if the whole of the districts in one Island or the two Islands were run together that they would get better opportunities for promotion, but the great bulk of them would not. 26. Would it not bring the possibility of promotion into the larger schools to teachers who are now in country districts like yours who would never get such opportunities ?—I very much doubt it. Some of them would get higher —those of considerable ability —but I do not think it would affect most of them. 27. You do not think there is much to be gained by it ? —I do not think so. 28. And whatever gain there was you think would be lost by taking away the local administration ? —I do. 29. Mr. Poland.] With regard to the proposed Hawke's Bay District, do you know Te Aroha ? —No, Ido not know that country personally. 30. You have recommended that should be the boundary of the Auckland District, and that you put Piako and Te Aroha into Hawke's Bay to be governed from Napier ?—Yes. 31. You have said that in your opinion this proposal of yours is a much better division than that proposed in the Bill ? —Yes. Supposing an Inspector was going from Napier, he would go to Te Aroha and inspect the schools in that district. He would work from school to school till he got to Tauranga