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E.—2

East Coast. —John Brooking, Esq., of Gisborne, has been acting as District Superintendent of the schools on this coast. Waiomatatini: The influence of Major Eopata, and the painstaking and care of the master and mistress, keep this school up to the standard that was reached by the former teacher. This is one of our best and most useful schools. The results obtained at Akuaku were rather disappointing. The master appeared somehow to have failed to obtain the sympathy of the Natives, and, consequently perhaps, the attendance has been very irregular. The teacher understands his business, though, and it may fairly be hoped that, as he gains experience in dealing with the Natives, he will succeed in obtaining their co-operation, and get a chance of showing what he can do under fairly favourable circum.stan.ces. Tokomaru school was closed temporarily, owing to the dangerous illness of the master, and the children could not be got together to be examined. The examination of Tolago Bay school gave but very moderate results ; many of the children were very young. The attendance did not warrant the keeping this on as a village school: it is now under a female teacher, who receives a subsidy from the Government. Three of the four boarding-schools in the Hawke'sßay District gave satisfactory results when examined; the fourth, St. Mary's, Meanee, (E.G.), had been thrown out of working order through a change of masters and of management; it had not recovered at the period of my visit. The passes obtained were two in Standard I. St. Joseph's Providence, Napier (E.G.), managed by the Sisters of Our Lady of Missions, did remarkably well. The girls had made great progress in every subject. No one who has seen this school at work can doubt that the girls educated there receive very great benefit from their training. It may be, and often is, the case that girls who leave this and kindred institutions do not at once give very striking proof of the good that has been done to them, but after a time —after they have settled down and married —the effects of the influence for good that has been brought to bear upon them become plainly apparent, and their dress, their houses, and their children nearly always show that old pupils of these schools have been improved, in many most important respects, by the school training they have received. Passes were obtained here as follows : Four in Standard 111., two in Standard 11., and seven in Standard I. The Protestant Native Girls' School at Hukarere, Napier, also did very well indeed. Some few defects were noticed in the methods employed; these have since been remedied. The difficulty referred to in last year's report, arising from the weakening of our village schools through the removal of pupils from these to the boarding-schools, has been obviated to a certain extent. The authoriolc;,.. of the boarding-schools now endeavour, as far as possible, to obtain pupils from districts where there are no village schools. The good effects of the adoption of this policy will, I feel sure, very speedily become apparent. It is hoped that in a short time a sufficient number of Fourth Standard pupils will be obtained to supply all vacancies in the boys' boarding-schools, and a large number of those in the girls'. When this has been brought about, both village and boarding schools will be doing the kind of work they are best fitted to perform. They have a very salutary rule here at Hukarere :in accordance with it a girl that has passed all her examinations spends three months in the kitchen as a sort of head-cook, before she finally leaves the school. Of the twenty Government scholars examined, one passed in Standard IV.; one in Standard III.; three in Standard II.; and four in Standard I. The Native College at Te Aute is quite sui generis. We have here a good secondary school for Maoris. It is well equipped with all necessary appliances, and the education given is of a superior kind. Of the ten Government scholars examined in the Fourth Standard, four passed. After the routine work was done, papers were set for the whole school. The subjects were history, geography, English, mathematics, and elementary science. The questions given were such as one would, have set for an advanced class in a European grammar school, and were such that mere book-cram would have quite failed to enable the pupils to deal with them. The answers varied from very good down to fair. No paper was sent in by any boy in the senior class that was not at least respectable The answers given to the science paper on Huxley's " Introduction to Physics" were remarkably good, and showed that the pupils had thoroughly mastered the work they had gone over. The questions set for the second class, too, were well answered as far as the matter was concerned, though the style was, of course, less perfect. The third and fourth classes, taught by the assistant-master, showed very satisfactory progress; the arithmetic was especially good. The fifth class, taught by a Maori assistant, was very much weaker. It seems to be rather a mistake to set a Maori, be he ever so correct a speaker himself, to teach young pupils English; he will naturally tolerate and perhaps fail to notice mispronunciations and mistakes that an Englishman would instantly detect and correct. I imagine that under a Maori teacher children might acquire very bad habits in speaking, that it would be very hard to eradicate afterwards. At the examination the best percentages were gained by—(l) Taramana Hei; (2) William Nehua; and (3) T. G. Poutawera. While the intellectual education of the boys is thus thoroughly well attended to, their physical training is not neglected. There is a fairly complete gymnasium, and English games such as cricket and football are played skilfully and successfully. Each boy has a moderate share of work in the garden assigned, to him. He has besides a plot of ground that is all his own while he remains at the college; he may grow what he likes in this plot and dispose of the produce as he wishes. The domestic arrangements are good, and so is the food. There is one other matter that may be alluded to; the boys are taught to behave themselves well here. I spent a whole evening with the boys of the senior class at Te Aute, and noticed that there was n.o trace of bashfulness, loutishness, or forwardness in the conduct of any of them. On the whole, this Te Aute institution is a very satisfactory one. In connection with Te Aute it should be mentioned that two examinations were held during the year of candidates for the Te Makarini scholarships. The papers set were purposely madfl difficult, because such papers differentiate candidates completely. The harder the papers are the more certain and satisfactory is the decision arrived at, when the object is merely to select the best three of a number of candidates. The answering varied from moderate to very fair. Two scholarships were gained by pupils from Otago Heads Village School; one by a boy from The Neck, Stewart Island; one went to a junior from Te Aute; and two to pupils of St. Stephen's, Auckland,