E.—2.

[Appendix A.

year as an associated school. A grant has been authorized for the erection of a separate room at the Richmond Road School to be used as a common-room for the students. That room will be subsequently available as a practical workroom for the pupils of the school. Arrangements are being made for the Training College to be enlarged at the end of this year. It is the intention to establish a second normal school on a site which has been acquired in the Mount Eden district. District High Schools. —[See E.-6, Report on Secondary Education.] Manual Training. —School woodwork and cookery: During the year 1918 school classes in woodwork and cookery were conducted at Whangarei, Te Kopuru, Dargaville, Helensville, Devonport, Newmarket, Newton, Otahuhu, Ponsonby, Pukekohe, Hamilton, Te Kuiti, Taumarunui, Cambridge, Matamata, Rotorua, Te Aroha, Waihi, Thames, Tauranga, and Coromandel. The classes at Rotorua and Taumarunui were held in temporary premises. Arrangements have been concluded for the erection of manual-training schools at Northcote. Rotorua, and Ngaruawahia, and at each of those centres classes will begin early in 1919. Miss A. B. Juniper has been appointed Domestic Science Organizer for the Education District, and it is anticipated that there will be very considerable development in domestic science as the result of her work. There is urgent need for additional accommodation in the manual-training schools in the city and suburbs. The centres at Newton, Ponsonby, and Newmarket should be converted into double centres, and new manual-training schools are needed at Avondale and Onehunga. The full rural course was taken by the secondary pupils of the Aratapu, Coromandel, Pukekohe, Te Kuiti, Taumarunui, Cambridge, Matamata, Rotorua, Paeroa, Waihi, and Tauranga District High Schools. Each of these schools was visited regularly by an instructor in agriculture, who assisted in the agri-cultural-science teaching. School Classes. —Recognized classes in swimming and life-saving were held at twenty-nine schools during 1918. During the year 232 public schools and eleven Native schools held recognized agricultural classes, and ninety-six schools took a combined course of agriculture and dairy science, whilst one school took dairy science. Needlework was taken by special sewing-mistresses at eightyfour schools without female teachers. 580 schools took recognized classes in handwork. Several teachers' classes were held for the purpose of giving special instruction in the methods to be adopted in teaching agriculture in primary schools. Only selected teachers were invited to attend, and the results have been exceedingly satisfactory, a marked improvement being noticed in the agriculture work at the schools from which these teachers came. Teachers' classes for practical work required for certificate examinations were held in the following subjects : Hygiene, dairy science, agriculture, and botany. A teachers' farm school held at Ruakura Government Farm of Instruction was attended by eighty teachers. Only teachers taking recognized agriculture classes at their schools were invited to attend. Twelve sets of notes dealing with general agriculture were sent out to 114 farmers who joined the farmers' correspondence class. Towards the end of the year arrangements were made to supply six sets of notes on dairy science to a class of thirty farmers. In conjunction with the Department of Agriculture the Education Board has arranged for a series of experiments in connection with pastures, forage, fodder and root crops to be carried out at Dargaville. Technical and continuation classes were held at Dargaville, Te Kopuru, Whangarei, Devonport, Otahuhu, Pukekohe, Hamilton, Te Kuiti, Matamata, Te Aroha, Waihi, Thames. Senior free places were granted to twenty-five pupils who attended technical and continuation classes in 1918. A grant of £3,450 has been made by the Department for the erection of a manual and technical school at Hamilton, and it is expected that the building will be ready for occupation early in 1919. Se.ddon Memorial Technical College. —The Technical College last year was taxed to its utmost, particularly as regards accommodation for students in the Technical High School, where the attendance was 595, as against 541 the previous year. The completion of the College is urgently needed, and an application was made during the year to the Department for a grant of £8,000 for providing additional workshops. As the Department was only prepared to grant £3,000 on condition that the Board spent £5,000 out of its ordinary funds, no progress was made with the proposal. The total number of students attending the College was 1,824, being an increase of seventy-two over the previous year. Officers. —Mr. E. C. Purdie, Advisory Inspector, was appointed Secretary in place of Mr. Crowe, who died suddenly in May last. The Board records its appreciation of Mr. Crowe's valuable services in the cause of education. Mr. D. W. Dunlop has been appointed Advisory Inspector. I have, &c, The Hon. the Minister of Education, Wellington. E. C. Banks, Chairman.

TARANAKI. Sir,— New Plymouth, 31st March, 1919. I have the honour on behalf of the Board to present the following report of its proceedings for the j'ear 1918:— Board Members. —The constitution of the Board is as follows : Urban District of New Plymouth —Messrs. H. H. Grayling and S. C. Smith, M.P.; Central Ward—Messrs. R. Masters (Chairman) and H. Trimble; North Ward —Messrs. T. Buchanan and P. J. H. White; South Ward—Messrs. H. J. Eaves and C. A. Wilkinson, M.P. In accordance with section 15 (4) of the Education Act the following members retired prior to the election of members of the Board:

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