13

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lodged that the increased cost of living is'at least 60 per cent, higher than it was in 1915, very little has been done in the way of increasing the salaries of technical-school teachers. On account of the low rate of capitation it has been quite impossible for Boards of Managers of Technical Schools to make anything like satisfactory increases to their staffs. It is true that last year the capitation was raised from £13 10s. to £15 per pupil, and the fixed grant from £100 to £500; but on a school of 400 pupils this would mean an increase of less than 10 per cent. It is to be hoped that the Department will soon adopt a colonial scale of salaries for technical-school teachers, based on the present cost of living, and of sufficient liberality to encourage the best class of men and women to take up this important national work. Day Continuation Classes.-—As I have repeatedly pointed out in previous reports, evening classes for young people between the ages of fourteen and eighteen years are in every way unsatisfactory. We cannot expect boys and girls who are working in the daytime to attend evening classes without suffering physically. It is to be hoped that one of the educational reforms in the near future will be the provision of compulsory continuation classes in the daytime for boys and girls up to the age of eighteen years. Completion of the School Buildings. —The completion of the school buildings seems as far off as ever. Notification has recently been received from the Department that a grant of £20,000 has been provided for additional workshops, but this sum of money is quite inadequate even to provide for the necessary accommodation. To complete the building as was originally intended would, at the present time, probably cost the sum of £50,000 or £60,000. George George, Director. Extract from the Report ok the Supervisor of Manual and Technical Instruction. Technical and Continuation Classes. —Classes were held at Dargaville, Te Kopuru, Whangarei, Devonport, Otahuhu, Pukekohe, Hamilton, Te Kuiti, Rotorua, Te Aroha, Thames, Waihi, and Ngaruawahia, and the numbers of students who attended were Dargaville, 55; Devonport, 95; Hamilton, 160; Ngaruawahia, 27; Otahuhu, 59; Pukekohe, 58; Rotorua, 120; Te Aroha, 43; Te Kopuru, 36; Thames, 1.41; Waihi, 104: Whangarei, 170. Wool-classing classes, 143; teachers' classes, 249; private schools, 792. In addition to the classes held at the above centres, special dressmaking classes for adults were held at Waihou, Puriri, Turua, Matamata, Te Awamutu, Morrinsville, Onehunga, and Royal Oak (near Epsom). The new Technical School buildings at Hamilton are in course of erection, and it is expected that they will be ready for use early in 1920. It is the intention of the Board to establish there day technical classes as well as evening technical and continuation classes. The Department has approved of the establishing of a technical high school at Pukekohe, where the people have provided a fine site for the purpose. An engineering and metal-work room has been built at Whangarei, and it will be equipped for class-work in 1920. Annual Examinations. —These were held at the end of November, and certificates were issued to those satisfying the requirements. To secure more uniformity of attainment during the comingyear, definite courses of work in several subjects (e.g., English, arithmetic, book-keeping, shorthand, typewriting, and dressmaking) are being arranged for all the technical and continuation scliools. Senior free places were awarded to thirty-nine students at the end of the year. Teachers' ('lasses. —Classes for practical science work for certificate requirements were held in the following subjects: D certificate —agriculture, botany, hygiene, dairy science; C certificate —agriculture, dairy science, physiology. Cardboard-modelling classes were also held. Correspondence classes for uncertificated teachers were taken in the following subjects : English, mathematics, geography, agriculture, botany, hygiene, French, Latin, methods of teaching. Special classes for teachers were held for instruction in the methods to be adopted in teaching elementary agriculture and dairy science. The teachers' farm school held at Ruakura in January was again very successful. These classes have proved very valuable in stimulating the interest of teachers in agricultural education. Only selected teachers —those who have shown by their school elementary agriculture work that they would appreciate the course —are invited to attend. Farmers' Classes. —The Board engaged an expert to take special wool-classing classes for farmers at the following places: Maungakaramea, Opotiki, Waiotahi, and Whangarei; and similar classes for returned soldiers at Kamo and at Rotorua. A very important gathering, tho first farmers' farm school in New Zealand, was held at Ruakura for a week in July. Eight)- farmers from all parts of the province attended the course of instruction, which was given by the officials of the Department of Agriculture and by the agriculture instructors of the Education Board. So pronounced was the success of the gatherng that the Director of Agriculture has approved of similar courses for 1920. This farmers' school showed that there exists among the farmers of the province a keen desire to secure information on agricultural and pastoral work. The Board's instructors delivered lectures on various subjects of interest to farmers at a number of country centres during the year. The experimental work at Dargaville has been continued under the joint direction of this branch and the Department of Agriculture. J. P. Kalaugher, Supervisor. Extract from the Report of the Director of the Elam School op Art. The attendance during the year has been very satisfactory. The total number of hourattendances registered was 32,587, which does not include 5,108 hour-attendances made by younger students on Saturdays, these not being recognized by the Education Department. The work has been to a large extent on the usual lines, the chief change being in the direction of commercial art, which has received much more attention than usual. Students are beginning to appreciate the fact that various forms of commercial art can be made to pay, even from the commencement, if the work is good, and as a large number of our students are interested in the immediate question of earning money this naturally appeals to them. Under the auspices of the Repatriation Board a number of returned soldiers have taken up various forms of commercial