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these qualities proceed. Mr. Lancaster, writing upon moral training, says, " The province of the school is to train children in the practice of such moral habits as are conducive to the welfare of society, as well as to impart instruction in useful learning." Now that the Bible has been expunged from the list of school-books as issued by the department, practically there is no standard of morality to be recognized by the teachers, but I sincerely hope that the present educational machinery, good as it is in many points, may be perfected by permitting the introduction of the Bible as a reading-book into the public schools, guarded only by the adoption of a conscience clause, similar to that adopted by the Home Government. Conclusion. —I have to express my thanks to you personally as Chairman, and to the members of tho Board, for the kind courtesy shown to me during my short term of office as Secretary and Inspector; and I also desire to acknowledge the ready assistance afforded me by the various School Committees in my first visit as a stranger to their districts. I have, &c, J. D. Ormond, Esq., " H. Hill, 8.A., Chairman, Hawke's Bay Education Board. Inspector of Schools.

MARLBOROUGH. Sir,— Nelson, 28th October, 1878. I bave the honor to lay before you the report on the result of my first examination of the schools within the Marlborough Education District. This examination has been hampered by certain difficulties, which will not recur on my next visit. I was a stranger alike to teachers and scholars, and could only glean a scanty knowledge of what had been done hitherto from a perusal of the report of the last examinations made by my predecessor eighteen months ago. In compliance with the express wish of the teachers (who represented to me that a bonus had been promised them for every scholar who passed in the higher standards used by the late Inspector), I consented to make use of a set of standards which, whatever their peculiar merits might be, were unfamiliar to me, and which, moreover, were destined to be superseded shortly by the new standards issued by the Education Department. I have felt, therefore, throughout my late examination, much like one walking in fetters, which were all the more irksome that I had no hand in the forging of them. With every desire to preserve something like consistency between the results obtained by means of these standards and my own opinion as to the general nTerits of each school, I have been unable to avoid several glariug discrepancies between the figures and the written portion of the report. A single example will suffice to show what I mean. In Standards 111. and IV. ten marks are the maximum allowed for writing, eighty being given for arithmetic. But it is impossible to admit that the latter subject is worth eight times as much as the former. Knowing how advancement in almost every direction is nowadays debarred against any one who lacks tho passport of a quick and legible handwriting, I should be disposed to fix a value to penmanship not much lower than that usually assigned to arithmetic, which indeed threatens to become altogether too prominent in schools, to the exclusion, amongst other things, of anything like literature. 1 have been reduced, therefore, by way of restoring the balance, to record my senso of the goodness or tho badness of waiting in several schools in my short summary on each. On the whole, I was favourably impressed with the Marlborough schools. Looking, indeed, to the slenderness of the remuneration —especially in the smaller and remote schools —which the means at the disposal of the Board enable it to offer, and to the slight prospect of promotion within so limited a field of employment, I think the Board may be congratulated on having secured the services of the present body of teachers. So far as I can judge from a single visit, they are, as a rule, thoroughly in earnest, and fairly equal to the work hitherto demanded of them. How some may fare under the far more stringent requirements of the code is another matter. The general conclusion I have come to as to the way in which the several subjects hitherto prescribed are being dealt with is that, with a few exceptions— which are pointed out in my short notice of each school —the three most important subjects, reading, writing, and arithmetic, are well taught. But the exceedingly meagre and inaccurate answers that I have too often received to comparatively simple questions in grammar, geography, and, above all, history, excite serious misgivings as to the result of imposing such additional subjects as music, drawing, and natural science. To say nothing of the confessed inability of many of the present staff to handle these subjects at all, it is clear to me that, if several engrossing subjects are to be tacked on to the existing school course, either the teaching staff must bo augmented, or such essentials as reading and writing must inevitably suffer. I cau conceive of nothing more disastrous than the latter result; yet it is difficult to see how, under the present scale of payments to Boards, any considerable increase in the number of teachers can be made. Many of tho schools were but poorly supplied with reading- and copy-books. In some instances two or three scholars were obliged to read from a single book; in other cases two quite different sets of reading-books were iv use in the same class. On my next visit I shall endeavour to ascertain, what I have had but little opportunity of observing on this occasion, the meihod of teaching pursued in each school, and the behaviour of the scholars. As yet all my time and attention have been taken up with the mere gauging of results. I purpose also reorganizing the schools, with the help of the teachers, in order that teachers, scholars, and Inspector may be prepared to meet the requirements of the new regulations as to standards. The number of passes made in Standards 111. and IV., though far in excess of what was obtained at the previous examinations, was not larger than I should have expected from the age and length of school life of the majority of those who passed. Out of the 907 scholars on the roll, 80S were present at my examinations, the average attendance for the last quarter having been 718. So long a period has elapsed since the Marlborough schools were last reported on that I thought the interests of the Board would bo best'cousulted by my sending in this report at once, without waiting until I had examined the small school at Kekerangu. I subjoin a short account of the state of each school, the schools being given in the order in which I examined them. I have, &c, The Chairman, Marlborough Education Board. W. C. Hodgson.