21

H.-li

and I hope to he able to find at my next visit that the kindergarten system, as adapted to colonial schools, is in full operation. Without making any further remarks upon the benefits to be derived from fostering a system of infant training in our schools, I will conclude my report by quoting a few lines from the Blue Book (1869-70) of the Committee of Council on Education in England, wherein it is clearly shown the close connection that exists between an. efficient system of infant and adult education. The report says, " The class of school which makes the most special provision for the separate instruction of infants, and numbers the largest proportion of infants on its registers, is at the same time found to present the smallest proportion of scholars above ten years of age in the lowest standards. No figures which we could quote would demonstrate more conclusively the necessity of making a careful organization of infants' schools the basis of an efficient system of national education." I have, Ac, J. D. Ormond, Esq., H. Hill, 8.A., Chairman, Hawke's Bay Education Board. Inspector of Schools.

MARLBOROUGH. Sir,— I have the honor to lay before you my report for 1879. I have as yet had but little opportunity of observing the methods of teaching pursued in the Marlborough schools, the whole of my time during March and part of April having been occupied in putting the scholars through a trial examination in the work of the new standards, with the view of preparing both teachers and scholars for the annual examination just completed, the results of which may he summed up as follows : — Seventeen schools have been examined, three others —Canvasstown, Wairau Valley, and Omaka— being closed, the two former temporarily, the latter, as I understand, permanently. There were 984 scholars on the rolls of the schools examined, 883 being present at my examination ; 609 were presented for standard, 458 of whom passed, giving a percentage of about 75 for the whole district. As a rule, the teachers do not seem to have erred in placing* their scholars too low, the proportion of failures being much greater in the higher than in the lower standards. The percentage of passes in the Fifth Standard, for instance, was only 42, that in the First and Second Standards being 85. No more than 11 candidates passed in Standard VI., which is intentionally made difficult, and to obtain a pass in which very full answers must he given. On the whole, I see no reason for altering the favourable estimate of the Marlborough teachers that I formed on my first visit. Without exception they have loyally striven to fulfil the manifold requirements of the new order of things, and, in several instances (which will be pointed out in the detailed notice of each school), with, more success than I had anticipated. But my apprehensions as to the possible evil effect of requiring several additional subjects to he taught by a b®dy of men who had already enough to do, have been fully justified by the result. For example, in two branches which admit of being very accurately tested—arithmetic and spelling—there has been a very palpable fallingoff, extending even to the most advanced scholars in some of the leading schools. The great prominence given in the standards to such subjects as geography and history has also tended to distract the attention of teachers from what I must still term the essentials of an elementary education. This is, perhaps, most noticeable in history, on the teaching of which an amount of pains has evidently been bestowed altogether disproportionate to its importance. It is, indeed, my deliberate opinion that the sooner this subject is abandoned in primary schools the better. To begin with, it is so uninteresting to the children of New Zealand that, after the teacher has done his best, nine scholars out of ten really know about the matter hardly anything worth remembering. The patriotic feeling that causes the English schoolboy to read with such relish the story of British triumphs and progress is, naturally, feeble among those born and bred in this country. Nor is the ghastly record of the crimes of the halfsavage .Norman and Plantagenet Kings, or of the tyranny of the Tudors and Stuarts, which forms the staple of our little school epitomes of history, pleasant or profitable reading for the young. Add to this the almost insuperable difficulty of getting a "History of England" that shall not give offence— and reasonable offence —to hundreds of parents, on religious grounds, and a strong case will have been made out for cutting history out of our school «'ourse. The teaching of drawing is being gradually introduced into the Marlborough schools, but only two or three teachers have as yet begun to teach singing by note. Sewing now forms part of the regular school course, wherever a mistress is employed. There is a striking irregularity in the handwriting of the different schools. Indeed, judging from the pride with which several indifferent specimens of calligraphy have been exhibited to me, I begin to suspect that some of the teachers hardly know what really good writing means. The difference between the penmanship at Kaituna, Waitohi, or Renwiek, for instance, and much of the work I see elsewhere, is one not merely of degree, but of kind. It is to he feared, also, that the pressure of a multiplicity of subjects has driven some teachers to revert to the bad old plau of attempting to teach writing while giving a lesson in something else. Tet the one indispensable condition of success, either in teaching or learning this art, is the taking of great pains. The study of elementary science, which is new to all the scholars, and, apparently, to some of the teachers, has been taken up by both with a spirit and interest that are altogether lacking when history has to be dealt with. The want of a suitable text-book, specially adapted to the requirements of the regulations, has been well supplied by Curnow and Morison's Science Primer, the first seventy pages of which will he taken up next year. To provide the schools with even the least costly apparatus would obviously involve too great an expenditure; but I would suggest that the Board should procure a single set of apparatus, which might be passed round -from school to school. Twelve months would give a month's use to every master in the district who is at present teaching science. Fully agreeing with several of my fellow-inspectors that the accumulation of masses of undigested and, indeed, indigestible statistics is a nuisance to be abated, I have been at some pains to make my record of the results of the late examination as short and as simple as possible. I trust that I have omitted nothing that either the Board or the bulk of the general public really wish to know. Those