CANTERBURY SCHOOLS.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 169, 10 April 1908, Page 4

CANTERBURY SCHOOLS.

■X. )■.'.' . THE ANNUAL RIiPORT. : . ~ (n\ TELix-rcArri,—speciat, corresfondknt.) : ) Christclnirch,, April 9. •- At the meeting of the Education Board tho. Chairman'(Mr. M. Dalziel) subniitted':liis annual report. - Tho total) expenditure on building during tho year, incliiding now schools, additions, 'and repairs' was £11,900.' Tho expenditure 'on salaries and allowances to teachers ■ engaged;, in primary-.. departments .amounted to £64,241, and grants j to school .committees and other incidental expenses to £6727, .making, a .total .of .£70,968. Tho average attendances, oil which payment, of - salaries and incidentals was,. m'ado ; wero 16,880 and 16,285 respectively,',the cost per bead ofsalaries;being £3 i6s. /ljd., and tliat of incidental expenses Bs. 3d., -.making a total,.of £4, 4s. ,4icl. per head.'. Tho salaries pf teachers, engaged : in .secondary ments, inolusivo of . the special payments to headmasters of, District High Schools, amountpd in the aggregato .to £2977 19s. 9d. Tlipro wore 520 touchers in tho Board's service at tho ehd'tf 1907., ,Of these 206 (120 malps and ' 86 fomalos) were hoads.,of schools or. departments, or in ; solo charge,.2o4 ; (43 males and 161 females), wero assistants, and 110 (35 males; and'7s females) were pupil'teachers. Tho.number of sewing mistresses .was 27. The number )of children on tlio, rolls of tli'o 206 schoils at the,end of, the year.was' 19j282,--which .is lo.wbr : than' in any year ,since 1885.' From 1890 to 1896 inclusive tlib nuniber was. over 21,000 each 'year; from 1897 to 1899 it was over 20,000; but sinco then:it lias not in any ' one year ' reached that- -total.'. ; Tho largo (mount of sickness prevalent among tlie children during part of tho year naturally interfered a good doal with their attendance at school. Of the. cases of irregular attendance reported, 1157 were in roforence tp children, attending the city sclioolb, and 985froin the ct.iiiitry. in addition to these, the names of 180 children were taken after inspection; of tho school rolls by the- truant officer. Prceecdings liavo.been instituted by the truant.officer, in 139 cases, resulting in 122 convictions and 17 dismissals. There appears to bo several grounds for this large amount of irregular.-attendance, thp primary contributing cause being the anxiety of par-' cuts to send their children to work, while in .many' other cases parents are indifferent"as to wliother their children recoivc instruction or not. Actual truancy has not prevailed to any great extent. Nine-tenths of tho polities,of tho country is made positively repellant by its deadly dullness. Now this is-a fatarerror. It is the bounden duty of responsible politicians to'give charm and romance to politics by tho admixture of imagination.—''New Ago.".' Want of interest and - hasty preparation are together responsible for tho terrible commonplace character .of, so much English cookery. We have tho cheapest and best f00d..-materials of the world, at command, yet ■wo arc, as a people, ill-fed.—-"Epicure."