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School for the Deaf, Sumner. Number of pupils who returned to the school in February, 1916, after the summer vacation .. .. .. .. .. .. .. 100 Number admitted during the school year .. .. .. 12 Left during or at the end of the school year .. .. .. 18 Number remaining on the roll after the close of the school year .. .. 99 Thirteen pupils were removed from school during the year, having reached a. satisfactory standard of education. The length of their school life varied from three and a. half to eleven years. The necessity of sending deaf children to be properly treated at as early an age as possible is imperative, although often overlooked, as it is clear that the process of educating them must be slower and more arduous than in the case of normal children. Of twelve new pupils received during the year five were over eight years of age, and three of these were over twelve years of age, the difficulty of educating these children being thus immeasurably increased. In addition to the ordinary school-work, the girl pupils of the school receive instruction in cookery, laundry-work, domestic economy, dressmaking, and dancing, and the boys in woodwork and gardening. The expenditure on the school for the last two financial years respectively was as follows : — 1914-15. 1915-16. £ £ Salaries .. .. .. .. .. 3,959 4,126 Maintenance of pupils and sundry expenses .. 1,740 1,745 Travelling-expenses .. .. .. 200 243 Maintenance of buildings .. .. .. 213 59 — 6,112 6,173 Less — Amount collected from parents by way of maintenance contributions .. 1,027 .1,195 Amount collected from Charitable Aid Boards .. .. .. 1,100 1,224 Sundry other recoveries .. .. 6 14 2,133 2,433 Net expenditure .. .. .. .. £3,979* £3,740* * Including for 1914-15 £1100, and for 1915-16 £139, paid from national-endowment revenue, Jubilee Institute for the Blind, Auckland. This institution is governed by a Board of Trustees, four of whom are appointed by the Government and the remaining five elected by the subscribers to the funds of the Institute. As the Institute comes within the scope of the Hospitals and Charitable Institutions Act, subsidy at the rate of 245. in the pound is payable by the Government on voluntary contributions received by the Board, and 10s*in the pound on the value of bequests. The amount paid by the Government towards the cost of training thirty-four pupils was £874, and the amount refunded to the Government during the year by parents and Charitable Aid Boards was £880, the Boards paying £523. The sum payable by the Government as subsidy to the Board of Trustees under the provisions of the Hospitals and Charitable Institutions Act was £1,940 3s. 7d. Special School for the Feeble-minded, Otekaike. Numbers as at the 31st December, 1915 : — Males. Females. In residence .. .. .. .. 60 Boarded out .. .. .. .. .. 2 4 Temporarily absent with friends .. . . . . 7 Total of both sexes . . . . .. . . . . 73 Of the above number under control one was between the ages of five and ten, twenty-five between eleven and sixteen, thirty-one between seventeen and twenty-