E.—IB.

16

law and public opinion, as that of a teacher of a public school in this colony. Except for gross immorality, no teacher can be dismissed without receiving three months' notice, and then only with the concurrence of his School Committee and the Education Board. But it is rarely indeed that matters get as far as a dismissal. What usually happens is this : After one, or, it may be, two adverse reports from the Inspector, supported, as a rule, by a letter of complaint from the Committee, a teacher is requested to resign, when he frequently contrives to extract from his Committee (only too anxious to get rid of him at any cost) a testimonial. Armed with this, he too often succeeds in inflicting his incapacity on some unsuspecting community far-remote from the scene of his past failure. My own experience as teacher and as Inspector dales back twenty-five years, but I can call to mind scarcely a single case during that period of wrongful, or even of harsh, dismissal. On the contrary, a score of instances occur to me in which teachers have been retained long after their unfitness had become matter of notoriety. It is not unreasonable to ask, how many days' grace would a merchant allow a salesman who failed to make sales ? Or for how many hours would a bank clerk retain office who could not make his books balance ? I have no hesitation in asserting that an amount of habitual negligence on the part of teachers in the making-out of the simplest returns, and a disregard of the plainest instructions in the matter of examinations, such as would insure the instant dismissal of the delinquents in almost every other path of life, is visited, in this district at least, with no severer penalty than a mild rebuke. The truth is, both parents, Committees, Boards, and Inspectors are only too ready to overlook almost any conceivable defects of temper or conduct in a teacher who will do fairly well the work he is paid to do. But the question has another side. Who is to compensate the unfortunate children for the irrevocable years wasted, for the opportunities lost, for the bad habits formed, that may affect the whole of their future lives ? It is an easy matter to win a cheap reputation for goodnature at the expense of justice to that part of the community which is least able to protect itself. Although a prompter and more vigorous action has been taken during the past twelve months than was formerly the case, I believe that the interests of education have suffered, and still suffer, from the apparently almost insuperable difficulties and delays that beset the act of getting rid of a notoriously unprofitable servant. No section of the community is more deeply interested in purging its ranks of unworthy members than teachers of proved capacity. To go no further, the continuance in the service of even a few.negligent or incapable persons has a powerfrll effect in depreciating the general rate of remuneration. Appeals for increase of salary are met, and will continue to be met, however unfairly, by pointing to the black sheep of the flock, who are undeniably overpaid. To reward exceptional merit, in a general system, however simple a matter in theory, in practice is both difficult and invidious. And in teaching, as in many other occupations, it is unfortunately, the worst workman, not the best, who regulates the average scale of pay. Although I am conscious that the inevitable tendency of the existing system of examination by standards is each year to judge more and more exclusively by the number of passes and failures recorded, I shall not on that account omit my usual short statement of the condition of each school as it appeared to me when I examined. Besides the members of the Board, and those professionally interested in our public schools, there must still be a respectable minority of the reading public who will be at the pains to correct the crude conclusions that the reading of a list of mere passes must lead to, by the perusal of a summary which takes into account some, at least, of the surroundings by which the progress of a school is modified. The undoubting faith with which the majority of mankind will bow down before an idol of their ow m setting-up is simply astounding. The figures of an Inspector claim to do no more than record how many scholars out of a number that a teacher has thought fit to present have complied with the minimum of requirement. Yet these figures are almost universally accepted as though they gave a mathematical demonstration of the exact status of any given school. On the other hand, the written analysis, the object of which is to show, at least approximately, whether the scholars, on the whole, know as much as they ought, taking into consideration their age, capacity, and length of attendance, is comparatively disregarded. Nor should it be forgotten that the tone and discipline of a school —things worth more than all the subjects in all the standards —find no place in the most elaborate of tabulated statements. It will fare ill with a community that is content to push these weightier matters into the background, in order that the foremost place may be occupied by mere literary smartness. It has been my custom hitherto to preface my detailed estimate of the state of each school with a statement, in general terms, as to the manner in which each subject is being taught in the district, adding practical suggestions for the guidance of teachers; but a perusal of the reports of my fellowInspectors, lately republished by the Education Department, has induced me to discontinue this practice. The conflict of opinion, and the variety of suggestions, are somewhat bewildering. One Inspector condemns in energetic terms the setting of exercises in reproduction, another objects to the present method of teaching grammar and geography, a third sets much store by the learning of little rhymes, to a fourth it seems that without tasteful reading aloud all the rest is naught, a fifth pins his faith to object-lessons; and the mass of technical information thus poured forth upon the teachers has been largely augmented by the pamphlet issued by the Education Department under the title of " The Standards." I shall not, therefore, add to the multitude of counsellors, being conscious that I have myself been needlessly didactic in time past. My pains will probably be better bestowed in explaining to each teacher who seems to require such help, on my visits of inspection, wherein his methods appear to me faulty. It will be found, I fear, that good advice which has no pointed and specific application usually falls flat, each teacher complacently passing it on to his neighbour. It would be unfair to pass over without notice the marked and general improvement that has been effected in composition, a subject in which our schools have hitherto been very deficient. The wretched performances to which I referred in my last report are now the exception, instead of being, as formerly, the rule. My estimate of the state of each school is as follows: —* W. C. Hodgson, The Chairman of the Education Board. Inspector.

* Not reprinted.