E.—l.

6

The corresponding number for the first quarter of this year is 8,108. It is impossible to know how many of these names were removed by careful teachers before the end of the quarter so as to keep the weekly roll-number down to its true place. Eor those who are not careful the requirement of the form of return is, probably, a sufficient check. The returns seem to prove on the whole that the teachers are careful in this matter; for last year the number of names of children removed from the roll before the end of a quarter during which they had been in attendance was larger than the number of the cases described above, and amounted to 22,087. The average attendance (64,407) at all the schools for the fourth quarter of 1880 is at the rate of 78*1 per cent, of the number (82,401) returned as belonging to the schools at the end of the quarter. The corresponding rates for the fourth quarters of 1879, 1878, and 1877 were respectively 77"7, 779, and 75, The numbers returned as belonging to all the schools at the end of each of the four quarters of 1880 were respectively 79,981, 80,919, 81,689, and 82,401; giving an average for the four quarters of 81,248. The average attendance (62,234) for the whole of the year was therefore at the rate of about 766 per cent, of the average number (81,248) belonging to the schools during the same period; the corresponding proportion for 1879 being 76-l. The last column of Table C gives the same information with regard to each of the education districts. The rates vary from 72 per cent, in the Taranaki District to 81-8 per cent, in Otago. The following are the corresponding percentages for the principal towns of the several education districts : Auckland, 82*9; New Plymouth, 73-9; Wanganui, 73-2; Wellington, 779; Napier, 787; Blenheim, 76-8; Nelson, 80; Christchurch, 731; Timaru, 79; Hokitika, 74; Dunedin, 865; and Invercargill, 77 : average for the whole of these towns, 79- l. The payments to Boards are necessarily regulated by the average daily attendance, but the number of children really belonging to a school at any time, and not the bare number in average daily attendance, may be fairly taken as representing the children deriving benefit from the school. The attendance of a number of children, owing to causes frequently beyond their control, may be somewhat irregular, especially in the rural districts, and yet they undoubtedly profit largely by their attendance at school, broken though it may sometimes be. The number of scholars returned as belonging to the public schools of the colony at the end of the last quarter of 1880 was 82,401. As already shown, the corresponding number for the whole year {i.e., the average of the four quarters) was 81,248, and this number has been made use of in calculating the last line of Table J, page 10. The following is a summary of the Boards' returns of the Maori children and those of mixed race attending the public schools at the close of 1880. These attendances are of course included in the column in Table C, headed "Number belonging at end of the year " : —

TABLE D.—Maoris and Children of Mixed Race attending Schools at the Close of 1880.

'ure Maoris Mixed Race. Total. Education Disteictk. Boys. Girls. Total. Boys. Girls, Total. Boys. Girls. Total. Auckland Taranaki Wanganui Wellington Hawke's Bay ... Marlborough ... Nelson North Canterbury South Canterbury Westland Otago ... ■ Southland 69 ... I 29 5 10 2 1 2 1 48 9 6 6 7 117 38 11 16 9 1 4 1 1 6 58 3 11 4 19 2 1 1 4 1 7 4 57 6 6 1 20 2 "i 11 12 115 9 17 5 39 4 1 2 i 15 1 19 4 127 3 40 9 29 4 2 3 5 1 11 4 1.05 6 15 7 26 9 ! 232 9 55 16 55 13 2 6 16 2 25 4 2 3 11 1 14 4 i 2 Total ... 123 81 204 115 116 231 238 197 435