E.—2.

Education Boards have been recommended to advise teachers to make fuller use of their playgrounds in the interests of physical welfare. Where grounds are ample they should be in continuous use throughout the day by the various classes both for formal exercises and organized games. Special emphasis has been laid on the fact that such use must be in the interests of every pupil and not of selected individuals only. Recreation, including swimming, is to be regarded as coming within the school day and not merely as something to be taken at the option of the teacher after school hours. A tribute however, must be paid to those teachers, and there are many such, who give so much of their spare time to fostering the love of healthy recreation in their pupils. Swimming and Life-saving. Deep public interest in the question of swimming and life-saving has been aroused by the large number of cases of drowning among children and adults. Owing to the geniality of our climate and to improvements in transport facilities there is a rapidly increasing interest in the pastime, an interest that demands corresponding attention in the schools. Every student in our Training Colleges for many years past has had to show himself proficient in swimming and life-saving before receiving a Teacher's Certificate. There is thus in our schools a very large number of proficient teachers of swimming, and since 1928 the syllabus of instruction for primary schools has laid it down that, wherever possible, swimming and life-saving are to be taught. In all too many cases, however, there are no readily available facilities. Even the Training Colleges labour under disadvantages, for of the four colleges only one, Auckland, has a swimmingbath in its grounds. It is true that a very large number of students enter college able to swim, but if these are to become really proficient and enthusiastic teachers of swimming and life-saving they should have facilities for the almost daily practice of the art. Education districts differ widely in the facilities provided ; thus we find towns like Wanganui with 110 fewer than four school swimming-baths, yet in another case a whole education district possesses only one. To some considerable degree initiative in this matter is determined by local climate. Where the swimming season is relatively long, there enthusiasm runs high. But as better highways and swifter transport are taking people in fast increasing numbers to seaside, lake, and river, and the cult of personal cleanliness and physical fitness comes more and more into favour, mere local initiative, particularly as far as children are concerned, is not enough. More positive action is necessary to see that every child has an opportunity of acquiring the art. And such instruction must be carried as far as possible to the point of perfection, for in this subject, especially with children, a little learning is a dangerous thing. The institution of the Learn-to-Swim Week in December proved a very popular and successful innovation, and the proposal to suspend the ordinary February time-table and conduct school activities principally out of doors should do much to foster the art. Safety Measures. During the year considerable attention has been devoted to teaching the principles of safety in connection with such matters as highway traffic, fire, and electricity. The rapidly increasing speed and density of road traffic, a similar development of electricity for industrial and domestic purposes, the growing density of population in certain areas, and the increasing leisure for sport and recreation have created a situation of which the schools are not yet fully conscious. During the year a road-safety code with special applicability to children was compiled by the Transport Department and the Road Safety Council in collaboration with the Education Department, and issued to parents through the medium of the schools. Copies were also made available to every student in the Training Colleges, whose Principals were asked to arrange for the students to receive theoretical and practical instruction therein. Statistics of road accidents to children have been published in the Education Gazette, and through the same medium teachers have been asked to report through their Education Boards any cases where in their opinion the routes by which their pupils reach school could be improved. Replies have been submitted to the Transport Department. Explicit advice has also been given through the Gazette in reference to the safest ways of traversing the highways on foot. One must acknowledge the keen continuing interest of the Transport Department in this problem. Warnings against touching stray detonators have been published, and a fresh supply of charts with dummy detonators and advice will shortly be circulated. With the co-operation of the Police Department and the Wellington Acclimatization Society, advice has been given oil the safe use of firearms. It is now proposed to collate all this " safety first" information and issue it in pamphlet form to schools, so that teachers will have at hand for ready reference the most recent advice on these matters. It is proposed to make use of the School Journal for the regular issue of safety-first slogans, which will serve as a daily reminder to pupils and teachers alike of the importance of this problem in the life of the nation. Under this heading may also be included the inculcation of the principle of temperance, and from the Inspectors' reports it appears that this subject is receiving due attention in most schools. It is interesting to note that in some countries this particular subject is being treated from the standpoint not so much of the physiological effects of alcohol 011 the individual as of the danger to

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