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Annual Reports of Education Boards. In accordance with the requirements of the Education Act, the several Education Boards have forwarded to this department reports of their proceedings during the year ended December 31,1877. These reports, which supply a variety of interesting information respecting public-school education in the different districts, are hereunto appended. It has not been deemed necessary to swell the dimensions of this report by including in it the whole of the detailed information which accompanied the Boards' reports. Inspection of the Public Schools. The reports furnished by the several Boards upon the inspection of the public schools under their control are hereunto appended. They contain much valuable information respecting the condition of the schools. It will be the duty of the Inspector-General to submit, in future, a comprehensive report on the inspection and the condition of the public schools throughout the colony. As that officer has only quite recently entered on his duties, it is impossible for him to furnish a report of this nature in regard to the past year. Training Institutions for Teachers. The Education Board of Auckland has established two classes or departments for the instruction and training of teachers—one in the City of Auckland, the other at the Thames. Information respecting these classes is furnished by the Inspector of Schools of the district, in a report hereunto appended. The Board reports that a Girls' Training and High School was established at Auckland in the beginning of 1877, but no detailed information has been given respecting it. " Normal schools," on a comparatively large scale, have been established at Christchurch and Dunedin by the Education Boards of the respective districts. The Christchurch institution has been in full operation under its present Principal since the beginning of last year. That of Dunedin was established in January, 1876. The reports by the respective Principals, which are hereunto appended, furnish full and interesting information respecting these institutions. The question of making satisfactory provision for the proper training of teachers is one of great and pressing importance, but it is at the same time attended with some amount of practical difficulty. Arrangements of a permanent character could only be entered upon after very careful and mature consideration. The maintenance of one largely-attended and fully-equipped training institution for the whole colony would possess many advantages; but by far the greatest difficulty experienced in connection with such schools in New Zealand is that of securing anything like a sufficient number of young men as candidates for admission and training. This difficulty would be greatly lessened by having training schools in several parts of the colony, and this very important consideration may very properly outweigh others that might be advanced in support of the establishment of only one large central institution. Scholarships. The reports of the Boards furnish information respecting scholarships. The number held last year by pupils of the public schools was as follows: Auckland, 15 ; Wellington, 6 ; Marlborough, 2; Nelson, 4; Canterbury, 21; and Otago, 6 : total number, 54. It is provided by the Education Act that Education Boards may, with the concurrence of the Minister of Education, from time to time, out of funds made specially applicable for the purpose, establish scholarships to be competed for by pupils of the public schools, and also scholarships open to all children of school age; that the holders of such scholarships shall carry on their studies in the higher branches of education at institutions under the control of the Boards, or, failing any such, at schools subject to inspection by a public school inspector; and that Boards may receive land or money for tbe foundation of scholarships. As yet very few scholarships have been founded by societies or private persons. An equitable and satisfactory mode of distributing such funds as may be