E.—2,

8

schools where the gardens are badly kept. It is, however, desirable that all teachers should do the best they can with their gardens. Nothing can be more beneficial to a teacher, after a day's hard mental work, than an hour or two's gardening; besides, it does the Maoris, both old and young, much good to see their teacher exerting himself to make his place neat and trim. If his own residence is untidy and neglected, he might tell Maoris as often as he liked to be tidy and industrious without producing the least result, except making them think that his practice does not square with his precept; but, if he shows them the nature of his faith by his works, they will not be long before they begin to imitate him. I know of no case in which the Natives have anything that deserves to be called a garden except in places where the teacher's garden is in good order. The best gardens are to be found at Paihia, Waima, Kaiapoi, Otamatea, Te Wairoa, and Te Kaha. Playgeounds. Arrangements have been made in accordance with which horizontal bars, parallels, and circular swings are supplied to schools where the masters are sufficiently skilled in gymnastic exercises to make this apparatus likely to be of real service. The expense is very small. Maori children are very liable to chest disease. It can hardly be doubted that gymnastic exercises, especially those that expand the chest and strengthen its muscles, are likely to do more in the way of giving them a fair chance of getting over this difficulty than almost any other remedies that could be used. Obganization. There are only two matters that require to be mentioned under this head—time-tables and supervision of the younger children. A "fancy" time-table is one constructed in accordance with certain generally received principles, it would gain the approval of an examiner in the art of teaching, and would obtain a large number of marks from him. A good working time-table is one thoroughly adapted to the school in which it is used and to the teacher who has to work by it. In many cases a fancy time-table is to be found hanging on the wall of a Native school, while the teacher apparently looks upon its precepts as things that he ought to carefully avoid obeying. There is always some solid reason for this : The weather has been very wet, and the attendance has been irregular ; it has, therefore, been found necessary to disregard the time-table for a time : the table has been temporarily laid aside in order that the children may go over back work : the table has been found unworkable and another is being constructed : the children are backward in some subject and more attention has to be devoted to it, under the circumstances it is not possible to keep to the order of work laid down in the table. With regard to this matter it may be said that it is bad for a master to be working without a time-table, but it is still worse to pretend to be following out a certain order of work and to be doing something quite different. The safest thing for a teacher with limited experience to do is to get some one to draw up a theoretically good table for him. This should be kept in his drawer. He should then make a rough table of his own, representing the work that he feels capable of doing and that he actually does. Alterations in pencil should be made from time to time. All the while he should be endeavouring to approximate more nearly to his model. In this way he would in time get a thoroughly good document and be able to work from it A teacher should remember that, though it is not the Inspector's place to say how work must be done, it is his duty to ascertain how it actually is done, and that a time-table whose precepts are not obeyed is entirely misleading. It is, I suppose, unnecessary to insist upon the advantages that are connected with the order and system that naturally attend the possession and observance of a good programme in a Native or any other school. When a time-table really represents the work, the children know exactly how and when each thing is to be done, and the school, like a well-constructed machine, does its work with great smoothness and regularity. In connection with this matter I would mention that it seems to be necessary to ask for a return of the number of times that the sewing-mistress of ' each school has been absent from her duty ; I am afraid that in some cases such absences occur too frequently, and are not recorded in the log-book. In many schools there is still insufficient provision for the supervision of the young children. The proof of this is that much of the work of the juniors is done in a slovenly and unsystematic manner. It is of little use for the master to move briskly round his school, and attend to all the work that is being done on inspection day, unless he is in the habit of doing it regularly. There is such a difference between the work of little children that are constantly attended to, and that of those who are allowed to look after themselves, to scribble on their slates, and to develop their conversational powers at will, that a fairly experienced teacher can detect it at a glance. Teachers would, I think, do well to remember that, if the exigencies of the school render it necessary that any part of the school should be left without effective supervision, it is the seniors, and not the juniors, that should work by themselves, seeing that the former may do useful work if left to themselves, but the latter will certainly do worse than nothing, by contracting bad habits that it may afterwards be impossible to remove. Discipline. In about nine-tenths of the schools, both the order and the school tone are satisfactory; in none are they very bad. A few teachers still make use of corporal punishment, but many who formerly thought it indispensable now find it easier, and far more pleasant, to do without it altogether. In some instances it was found that no record had been made of punishments of this character. Every ms'tance in which it is found necessary to resort to this ultima ratio must be of sufficient importance to require mention in the log-book. The following schools may be named as being remarkable for good order, or tone, or for both: Peria, Kaikohe, Waima, Otago Heads, Whakatane, Paihia, Port Molyneux, and Waitapu.