Appendix C.|

8.—2.

V

No. 3. EXTRACTS FROM THE REPORTS OF INSPECTORS OF SCHOOLS, DIRECTORS AND SUPERVISORS OF MANUAL INSTRUCTION, ETC. [For .Reports on Bural Courses in Distriot High Schools see E.-6, Report on Secondary Education.] AUCKLAND. Extract from the Report op the Supervisor of Manual and Technical Instruction. During the year the only new centre established for woodwork, and cookery classes was Tauranga. There are now open in this district the following manual-training centres: Te Kopuru, Dargaville, Helcusviile, Whangarei, Devonport, Ponsouby, Newton, Newmarket, Otahuhu, Pukekohe, Hamilton, Cambridge, Te Aroha, Waihi, Thames, and Tauranga. A. manualtraining school has been built at Matamata, and will be opened in June, 1917. At Te Kuiti ,£350 was raised by local subscription towards the cost of a manual and technical school, and the building, which is in course of erection, will include a science laboratory for use of the secondary pupils of the District High School. The sum of £400 has been given by the Northcote and Birkenhead Borough Councils towards the cost of erection of a manual-training school at Northcote, and application will be made to the Education Department to approve of the establishment, of a, manual-training school there. The Tauranga centre was opened early in. October, 1916, and by the end of the year the pupils (over two hundred in all) had completed their sixty hours of woodwork and cookery. The pupils attended five hours weekly—those from distant, schools attending for one full day each week, and those from the Tauranga primary and secondary departments attending for two two-hour and one one-hour lesson weekly. This scheme was extremely satisfactory, and the attendance of the pupils was remarkably good. The equipment used at Tauranga was that belonging to the Helensville centre, the pupils at the Helensville centre having completed their sixty hours' attendance by the end of September, 1.916. To avoid expense in transferring equipment the Tauranga centre will be opened for 1917 immediately after the summer holidays, and by early in May the pupils (250 in number) will have attended for sixty hours the woodwork and cookery classes. The equipment will then be taken back to Helensville, and that centre will be opened for 1917 work on the 31st May. A woodwork-room was erected at Tauranga, but the cookery lessons wore taken in a rented building which was fitted up for the purpose. The Tauranga -Borough Council gave the free use of the electrical apparatus and current, and the Tauranga Gas Company were also very liberal in their assistance. 1 strongly recommend this system as being suitable for many of the smaller centres of population. The work is more satisfactory both to the instructors and to the pupils. The instructors, who are living on the spot, can do more efficient work than can possibly be done by them when visiting a centre for one or two days weekly. Under this system it is possible for a woodwork and a cookery instructor to visit, three centres in the year and give sixty hours' instruction at each centre, and it is to be noted that one set of equipment will serve for the three centres. Owing to the small number of pupils at Te Kopuru and Dargaville the manual-training classes there during 1916 were run at a very heavy loss to the Board, so it was decided that for 1917 the pupils should be required to attend for four or five hours weekly. By the end of May most of the classes will have completed their sixty hours. The instructors will then be transferred to other centres for the remainder of the year. An important step was taken by the Board in deciding that in future any girl to be appointed as teacher-in-training at a city centre must possess certain educational qualifications which will enable her at the end of her two years' training in the cookery centre to gain a home-science bursary at the Otago University. It is recognized that a science training is a necessity for instructresses if the domestic-science course is to be efficiently carried out. Over seven thousand children are in regular attendance at the woodwork and cookery classes, and there is urgent need for more accommodation to provide for the ever-increasing numbers in Auckland City and suburbs. New centres should be established —one at Onehunga and another at Kingsland or Avondale. The secondary boys at Waihi as part of their woodwork course added a porch, 12 ft. by 12 ft., on to the woodwork-room. At Tauranga the senior boys lined the woodwork-room. At Pukekohe the secondary boys are adding a teachers' room, 8 ft. by 8 ft., to the cookery-room. The whole of the work in each of the above cases has been done by the boys under the direction of their instructor. For 1916 230 schools had recognized classes in agriculture, eighty-five schools had classes for the combined course in agriculture and dairy science, and three schools had dairy-science classes. Twenty-two schools were awarded certificates of merit for their agriculture and school-garden work. Thirty schools had recognized classes in swimming and life-saving. TARANAKI. Extract' from the Report of the Director of Agricultural Instruction. A System of short visits at frequent intervals has been established in connection with the primary-school classes for agriculture, each instructor taking a share of this. All teachers are to have a short course of instruction at Easter. A strong effort is being made to improve the surroundings of the schools by planting flower borders and plots of native shrubs and trees and