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languages, geography, mathematics, classics, history, drawing, music, and such branches of art or science as the Council shall at any time determine. No pupil shall be admitted under the age of nine years, nor unless he be able to read fluently, to write with tolerable accuracy from dictation, and be familiar with the first four rules of arithmetic." It was also provided that a sum of at least £300 should be set apart annually out of the trust estate for the foundation of scholarships to be held, by lads whose parents should reside more than four miles from the College, and to be awarded for merit. The report of the Governors for the year 1877, and an abstract of the accounts, are hereunto appended. Christ's College, Canterbury, was incorporated by an Ordinance of the Provincial Council of Canterbury in 1855, and is governed by a "Warden, SubWavden, and Pellows. It is endowed with lands by the Canterbury Church Property Trustees. A site of ten acres of the Government Domain for buildings and grounds was received from the Superintendent of the Province in 1857. A statement respecting this institution was readily furnished by the governing body in response to an invitation from the department, and is appended to this report. The Governors of Canterbury College have established a Girls' High School in the City of Christchurch. A report on this school by the Inspector-General is hereunto appended. The Otago Boys' High School was opened in 1863, under the provisions of "The Otago Education Ordinance, 1862," which enacted that "There shall be established in Dunedin a High School, under a rector or headmaster, and such number of duly-qualified masters and assistants as the Education Board shall from time to time consider necessary, in which shall be taught all the branches of a liberal education, the French and other modern languages, the Latin and Greek classics, mathematics, and such other branches of science as the advancement of the colony and the increase of the population may from time to time require." The Ordinance also provided that scholarships, to be held in the High School of Otago, or in any University in Great Britain, Ireland, Australia, or New Zealand, should be established and submitted to competition. The Girls' High School was established in 1870, by a resolution of the Provincial Council. Both institutions were under the management of the Otago Education Board till the end of 1877, when the control of the schools was transferred to a separate Board of Governors under " The Otago Boys' and Girls' High Schools Act, 1877." Extracts from the Education Board's prospectus and annual report, supplying information respecting the schools, and also a report on the Girls' High School by the Lady Principal, are hereunto appended. " The Southland Boys' and Girls' High Schools Act, 1877," provides for the appointment and incorporation of a Board of Governors for the management of Boys' and Girls' High Schools within the Education District of Southland. The Board of Governors has not yet been constituted, as the members of the Education Board of Southland, by whom two of the Governors are to be elected, only recently took office. Steps will be taken for the appointment and constitution of the Board at as early a date as the provisions of the Act will admit. Schools op Mines. The papers relating to the University of Otago and the Canterbury College include correspondence between the Government and the authorities of those institutions in regard to the establishment of a School of Mines in connection with each. It will be seen that the Council of the University of Otago has already appointed Mr. G. H. P. Ulrich to the office of Professor of Mineralogy and Metallurgy, and Director of the School of Mines now established in connection with the University, and that the Governors of Canterbury College have undertaken to institute a School of Mines. In future reports, care will be taken to present the information respecting the public institutions for the higher education in a more complete and systematic form than has been possible on this occasion.