E.—l.

1885. NEW ZEALAND.

Presented to both Houses of the General Assembly by Command of His Excellency.

Office of the Department of Education, Sie, — Wellington, Ist June, 1885. I have the honour, in accordance with the provisions of " The Education Act, 1877," to submit to your Excellency the following report upon the progress and condition of public education in New Zealand during the year ending the 31st day of December, 1884. I have, &c, Eobebt Stout. His Excellency Sir William F. Drummond Jervois, G.C.M.G., &c, Governor of New Zealand.

REPORT. " The Education Act, 1877," requires that the Minister of Education shall annually report " upon the progress and condition of public education in New Zealand." There are certain departments of public education in the colony that do not come under the operation of the Act, and it has been found convenient to prepare separate parliamentary papers relating to them, and to give here only a brief summary of their work, devoting the greater part of this report to the state of the " public schools " established under the provisions of the Act for the purposes of primary education, and to the accounts of the School Commissioners, who manage the reserves appropriated to the partial maintenance of primary and secondary schools. The separate papers submitted by the Education Department for presentation during the present session of the General Assembly are— Eeports on the Native schools (E.-2), industrial schools and orphanages (E.-3), and the institution for deaf-mutes (E.-4), all of which (except some of the industrial schools and orphanages) are under the direct management of the Department; reports on the University of New Zealand (E.-5), the University of Otago (E.-6), the Canterbury College (E.-7), and the Auckland University College (E.-8), and on secondary schools (E.-9), nearly all of which are required by law to make annual reports to the Minister of Education; a report on the distribution of .£4,000 voted by the General Assembly for subsidising public libraries (E.-10); a return of the endowment reserves made by authority of law for secondary and for University education (E.-ll); and a return of the property of Education Boards (E.-12). The Inspector-General's report on the annual examination for teachers' certificates (E.-1a), the reports of the Education i—E. 1.

EDUCATION. EIGHTH ANNUAL EEPOET OF THE MINISTEE OF EDUCATION. [In Continuation of E.-l, 1884.]