The Examiner. Published MONDAY, WEDNESDAY, AND FRIDAY. WEDNESDAY. JAN. 17.

Woodville Examiner, Volume XXII, Issue 3825, 17 January 1906, Page 2

The Examiner. Published MONDAY, WEDNESDAY, AND FRIDAY. WEDNESDAY. JAN. 17.

i Though it will be some days before (he elections will the be over in England, British results to hand inE lections. dicate almost as great a revulsion of feeling against the Balfour Ministry as there was in favour of Mr Seddon in New Zealand. Probably the two greatest factors which have contributed to bring about the rout of the Conservative Government have been the tariff reform question and the Chinese Labor in South Africa. Evidently the Mother Country is not ripe for reform in the tariff by way of the protection of British manufactures or reciprocity only with the colonies, though it is significant to read of the Metropolitan Railway Company sending its orders to Germany because that country has been able to undersell the British manufacturer. Then on the Chinese Labour question, though we in New Zealand may have felt more warm on the subject than perhaps circumstances warranted, there seems to have been a daily growing feeling of antagonism against Mr Balfour and bis colleagues for their action in this matter in the Home Country. This feeling, too, has been intensified by the almost daily reports of the outrages committed by the hordes of yellow savages upon white people in South Africa. Then, of course, the Conservative party lost ground by refraining from resignation when the feeling was against them on so many questions. It is to be hoped that the sudden change in public opinion at Home auguis well for (he future, but we doubt if it is a healthy sign to see so strong a revulsion.

Thk Registrar-General of the Colony has just issued a SCHOOL volume of statistics statistics. relating to the educational system of New Zealand. From it the information is obtained that them were on December 31, 1901, 1780 primary schools in the colon}', employing 3719 teachers, 1416 mab-s and 2303 females, and providing education for between 125,000 and 135,090 children. The last figure is indefinite, because the number on the roll and the number in attendance present a wide difference. The number on the roll at the beginning of the year was 125,150, and at the end 135,475, while the average attendance throughout the year was 116,506. The high schools, aided or endowed, numbered 97, with 4038 scholars and 189 teachers, and the private schools 295, with 16,378 scholars and 858 teachers. In the case of the private schools 724 of the teachers were females, and only 134 males. The sexes of the scholars did not show anything like the same disparity, as 6785 were boys and 9593 were girls. Of course, the Roman Catholic schools formed a very large proportion of the private institutions. These numbered 149, with 455 teachers and 11,373 scholars. The ages of the scholars attending the primary schools are given io yearly stages from five years and under six years to over fifteen years. There were no fewer than 10,607 children under six years, 13,995 between six and seven, 15,537 between seven and eight, 15,524 between eight and nine, 15,457 between nine and ten, 15,669 between ten and eleven, 15,078 between eleven and twelve, 14,447 between twelve and thirteen, 11.248 between thirteen and. fourteen, 5419 between fourteen and fifteen, and 2597 over fifteen. The 27 secondary schools were employing 189 regular and 66 visiting teachers, and were providing education for 2443 boys and 1895 girls.