7

E.—lb

Terrace, and Te Aro Schools show a very high classification of the pupils. lam on the whole pleased with the working of the infant schools, as much more attractive and useful information is imparted, and the management is exceedingly creditable. I am of opinion that the simultaneous method of teaching reading is too much resorted to, and that a class should be broken up into small sections for individual practice under spare teachers during the time in which a large gallery-lesson is being given. Simultaneous reading teaches expression; but careless pupils may escape observation, and may pay little attention to the narrative. District Town Schools.—ln the list of district town schools I include all schools beyond the city which have not less than one hundred names on the books. There are eight schools in this classification, containing 1,582 children. Of these, the Masterton, Carterton, and Taita Schools are the best. Greytown, Featherston, and Lower Hutt Schools are doing satisfactory work. The Upper Hutt is in an improved condition; but the Kaiwara School, excepting the lowest classes, was weak. The master of the Kaiwara School, who was only a probationer, having since resigned, I have reason to believe that under the present management the work will improve. I shall also hope to see better work done next year at the Upper Hutt. The work in the higher standards at Featherston and Greytown is below the average. The Carterton School is in a high state of efficiency, the Third Standard class alono showing any weakness. The work of the Fifth and Sixth Standards taught by Mr. Samuel himself was, all round, as good as any I have seen —the writing, spelling, and arithmetic being excellent. This school possesses the highest standard classification of the district town schools. The work of the first assistants in the Featherston and Masterton Schools, which last year was weak, is much improved this year. All these eight schools are at present fortunate in having well-qualified, efficient, and experienced teachers, who may, I trust, be relied upon to do good work year by year. Cohntey Schools.' —-There are twenty-one country schools in operation, each having at least 35 children on the books and less than 100. Of this class the schools which have the best quality of results this year are, in order—Waihinga, Fernridge, Karori, Park Vale, Clareville, Opaki, Johnsonville, and Kaitara. Grood work was done at Tawa, Ohariu, Judgeford, Korokoro, Pahautanui, and Gladstone. The highest standard classification is shown in the Tawa and Fernridge Schools ; and a high classification is manifested in the Kaitara, Korokoro, Judgeford, and Opaki Schools. The passes made this year at Ilorokivvi Valley and Matarawa were few, but the classification of the schools is good, and the passes in previous years at the latter school have been much above the average. The Mauriceville and Mungaroa Schools this year were weak, and better work will be expected. Also the Makara School continues weak, the work throughout being of poor quality, and the number of standard passes only 11 out of 34 presented. Of the two new schools, that at Kaitoke was in fair working order; that at "Wadestown was under an inefficient teacher, who has since resigned. litTKAii ScnoOLS.-—lncluding three new schools, there are ten schools of this class, each with less than 35 children on the books. The three new schools at Waihakeke, Taueru, and Wallace were fairly started. It is curious to notice how low the results are to begin with, considering that at Waihakeke a few good Carterton pupils bring with them their old classification. Of these schools Kaiwaiwai has the highest classification. With the exception of a little weakness at Waingawa and Wainuiomata, the general condition of these schools is fairly satisfactory, and there is a decided improvement apparent at Tauherenikau. English, Written and Spoken.—l have commended the work done this year in the highest standards. I could not fail to notice, however, that less marks were obtained in English grammar and composition than in any other subject. Except in the Carterton and Te Aro Schools, very few candidates obtained more than half marks in these subjects. They were, moreover, the weakest subjects in the strongest schools. Nor did this failure to obtain high marks arise from the nature of the questions, as I carefully framed the papers so that an easy composition alone would carry one-fourth the maximum marks, and the other questions set rather discouraged than courted a very technical knowledge of grammatical accidence. Much of the Third Standard failure this year is attributable to an inability on the part of pupils to put together half-a-dozen short sentences on a simple subject named by the Inspector. In the Fifth Standard papers one question set required the candidates to correct a short sentence containing one or two bad grammatical errors. This was corrected by only a few children, whose ears were trained to correct speech. Questions in all standards on the meaning and use of words were seldom well answered; and it was in many instances quite ridiculous to read the sentence constructed by a pupil who was asked to frame one containing such an expression as "to set on foot." All this, to my mind, points to the necessity of giving instruction in English, which is practically useful, and not to waste too much time merely on parsing, analysis of sentences, and the accidence of language. A composition exercise appears to me one of the most useful lessons of the day, and it should be an every day's lesson. If well done it is an exercise of good writing, good spelling, and original thought, besides its grammatical value. Some teachers make too much labour of the work, by correcting separately all the exercises of the class. Ido not think this is often necessary, if the mistakes of one or two pupils are pointed out, explained on the black-board, and critically examined before the class. I think the understanding of the analysis of simple sentences, and the use of conjunctions, is as much knowledge of analysis as can ordinarily be taught. I find more errors in telling the parts of speech in an ordinary sentence than in the full parsing. All the rules of parsing, all the practice in formal analysis, ail the knowledge of the subdivisions of pronouns and adverbs, are of little or no practical value if a pupil cannot construct a sentence showing that he understands the use of a common phrase, if he cannot write a fair letter showing some originality of thought, and if he cannot give a fair explanation in his own simple language of an ordinary passage from his reading-book. Then, again, I doubt whether much will be done in our primary schools to produce good English on paper until something is done to improve the spoken English of the scholars, and I might say of some of the teachers. The influence of good example is here invaluable. I find in class work pupils are seldom encouraged to give an answer at length, or to make anything approaching a short speech. Tims would not admit of this being done to any great extent; but, although talking in any form appears to be a bugbear in the eyes of teachers, I think a kind of discussion in class might occasionally be