The Bush Advocate SATURDAY, JULY 16. OUR SCHOOLS.

Bush Advocate, Volume VII, Issue 650, 16 July 1892, Page 2

The Bush Advocate SATURDAY, JULY 16. OUR SCHOOLS.

The number of children attending the public schools in this colony assumes greater- dimensions every y«ar. At the end of 1877, the year in which the Education Act was passed, there were 55,688 on the rolls. The average number last y»ir, computed from the weekly statements, was 120,882, exceeding by 2490 the corresponding soason for the year 1890. From the annual report it is learned that the proportion subsisting between tho number of boys aud the number of girls exhibits no appreciable change from year to year, the number of boys being always rather more than 51$ ptr cont of the total. No few«r than 9043 children were between five and six yeara of age. When we gat to the line allotted to those aged seven and under eight years the number mounts up to 14,025 ; and those of eight, niao, ton and eleven years of age attend in pretty nearly the same numbers. A largo proportion of them leave the school at thirteen years of age, as after that the numbers drop rapidly. Last year there wore only 2382 boya and girls over ihe age of fifteen years attending our public schools. The staff of teaahers to whom the education of all these little ones is entrusted numbered, at the end of last year, 8219, the mean number of pupils for one teacher being 31-4. The salaries paid amounted to £302,990 2s Bd, or an avorage of £94 2s 6d each. No fewer than 1879, including 987 pupil toachors, ware receiving under £100 per annum ; 1064, £100 and Isbb than £200 ; 215 were getting £200 and under £300 ; and 56 are set down at £300 and under £400. There are only four masters in the whole colony receiving more than £-400 a year. The number Of men, the Minister adds, is only slightly increased, the largest addition being to thu ranks of the female pupil teaohera.