E.—l

X

TABLE H.—Buildings Expenditure.

Nearly all the Boards continue to represent the amounts placed at their disposal for school buildings as quite inadequate to their several requirements. School Committees. The Education Act requires that the accounts of the School Committees shall be audited annually as prescribed by regulations under the Act, and that a copy of such accounts shall be forwarded to the Board of the district after they have been audited, together with tL. auditor's report thereon. Formerly the appointment of auditors was vestedm the School Committees themselves; but by amended regulations, dated September 18th, 1883, each Board is now required to appoint an auditor, or auditors, to audit the accounts of the School Committees within the district for which the Board is constituted. The change has proved a satisfactory one, and there is reason to believe it has led to considerable improvement m the keeping of the school fund accounts. In most cases the Boards have appointed their Secretary, or other officer, to perform the duties of auditor The Boards of Auckland and North Canterbury were able to secure the services of the Provincial District Auditors It would no doubt be acceptable to the Boards themselves if an arrangement could be made whereby the services of the Provincial District or other Government Auditor might be made available in every district for the auditing of the School Committees' accounts. Abstracts of these accounts have been received from all the Boards except that of Westland , a summary of them is contained m the Appendix, pages 106-7 Several of the Boards, m their annual reports, bear testimony to the satisfactory manner in which the School Committees have performed the duties devolving upon them. It is reported by the Taranaki Board that "the Committee for the Town of New Plymouth have taken great interest m their work during the past year," that " the country Committees are gradually takmg more interest in their work ," and that " the new regulations for auditing Schoof Committees' accounts will be found an improvement." The Hawke's Bay Board " again desires to express its. appreciation of the work done by the majority of the School Committees In most of the districts the compulsory clause is nominally in force, and there is generally a visiting Committee appointed in each district to see to the wants of teachers and pupils. There is a growing pride among them in regard to the neatness and satisfactory state of the residences, school-houses, and grounds, and comparatively large sums are annually collected by them for the improvement of the school buildings and supplying gymnastic apparatus for the physical training of the pupils. During the past year, Napier, Meanee, and

Education Disteiots. o 3 off Si CD || 6 IE g>5 ■ 03 o g . £*© o \7a Expe: iditure in 18S3 upon School Furniture and Appliances not included in the preceding. New Buildings. Improvements, Enlargements, Eepairs, &o. Purchase of Sites. Plans, Supervision, and other Expenses. Total. Auckland ;192 Taranald j 36 Wanganui j 67 Wellington ! 53 Hawke's Bay j 36 Mafrlborough ! 29 Nelson 82 North Canterbury |143 South Canterbury j 39 Westland No. 1 35 Otago . .. 159 Southland 72 106 21 52 30 24 15 133 32 18 156 67 33 4 5 5 6 8 10 4 £ s. a. 9,539 18 2 1,001 4 7' 1 471 13 3, 2 036 10 Oj 2,559 10 0 1,226 19 6 1,550 12 1 C,726 14 9 4,805 4 6 675 4 2! 12,331 3 9 4,405 5 8 £ s. d. 3,813 11 0 140 11 10 3,319 15 11 2,554 10 11 876 0 11 724 6 7 497 3 10 7 713 19 1 349 0 7 29G 13 5 1 927 16 10. 1,004 10 0 £ s. a. 1,735 16 9 70 10 6 7 9 9 408 16 4 587 11 10 182 5 0 144 13 3 997 16 7 562 4 £ 47 14 S 362 9 1J 84 18 ( £ s. a. 2,043 13 3 376 6 8 35 17 6 ! 1,019 10 0 197 0 0 £ b. a. 855 7 4 100 0 0 403 5 3 229 11 5 236 1 1 98 4 9 £ s. d. 17,988 G 6 1 688 13 7 5,238 1 8 G 248 18 8 4,456 3 2 2,231 15 10 2,323 19 2 16,685 4 5 6 547 G 2 1 242 19 3 16,293 14 7 5,803 10 0 131 10 0 239 12 0 1 492 11 2 1,007 2 0 338 5 2 223 7 6 714 5 10 218 15 10 2 5 1 957 18 3 90 0 0 Totals for 1883 ,943 Totals for 1882 '911 Increase 32 Decrease i •Westland, No. 2 i Do. ercessof No.2 687 1636 83 92 48,330 0 5 23,218 0 11 35 581 9 2 22,866 8 11 12,748 11 3 351 12 0 5,192 7 4 4,957 5 5 5,583 18 10 5 129 13 2 4,424 6 2i 3,317 8 1 ,'86,748 13 0 71 852 4 9 51 9 235 1 11 454 5 8 i 1 106 18 1 I 14,896 8 3 2 422 19 61 1 676 4 lit 1 747 15 4j 1,379 11 6 119 1 6 71 7 4l 416 2 6 192 15 0 4,634 8 5 3,391 9 2 *See note to Table F3, and notes prefixed to Westland returns, Appendix, pp. 35 and 82.