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tistics of the standard examinations of 1883, and the framing of the Scholarship Regulations for 1884—before I could enter upon my inspection of the schools in the district. During the first week in July I was engaged in examining fifty-two pupil-teachers and cadets, and, in the following month, the thirty-four candidates for the ten scholarships offered by the Board. On both examinations exhaustive reports were written. New regulations, also, for scholarships (1885), and regulations for pupil-teachers, with syllabus cf instruction, were framed, and, after being approved by the Board, were submitted to the Education Department, and passed almost in their entirety. It will thus readily be seen that the work entailed by the above, coupled with the preparation of several sets of standard examination cards, did not leave me much leisure for visits of inspection. It was, in fact, only during portions of the months of April, May, and June that I was able to give any time to these visits. I will now proceed to the actual work of my report. Schools and Accommodation. —At the close of the school year ended 31st December, seventyfour schools were in active operation, having a roll-number at the end of the quarter of 5,708, and a working average of 4,278, or nearly 75 per cent. The numbers for the corresponding quarter in 1883 were, roll-number 5,527; working average, 4,155; percentage, 75. There has thus been an increase during the year in the roll-number and average attendance of 181 and 123 respectively, while the percentage has remained nearly the same. Of the seventy-four schools, seven are aided schools, conducted in buildings not belonging to the Board, and having an average attendance of 79. During the year new schools were opened at Mangaone, Terrace End, and Otakeho, and aided schools were established at Bird Grove, Kimbolton Eoad, Momahaki, and Maramara Totara. The increase in attendance, therefore, has hardly been commensurate with the increase in the number of schools. In most of the schoolhouses the accommodation is sufficient for present requirements ; but those at Waverley, Normanby, and Hawera are too crowded. Plans, however, have been prepared for additions to these buildings. Early in the year, to relieve the pressure at Palmerston North, a branch school was established in a private hall at the suburb of Terrace End. The average attendance for the last quarter having reached eighty-three, and the hall being in no way suitable for a school, the Board purposes building on a site already obtained. When opportunity offers I think it would be advisable to shift the central school at Palmerston from its present very unsuitable position by the side of the railroad to some more extensive site at the southern end of the town. The present building, from frequent additions, is a marvel of inconvenience,and has little or no playground about it. Some of the schools appear to me to be situated too near to each other —hence the attendances are low, and pupils shift about at every fancied injury; while the salaries are not large enough to attract efficient teachers. In a few cases the salary paid according to the Board's scale is supplemented by the settlers. Most schools are singularly fortunate in having large playgrounds; but good fences are the exception, not the rule, and the playgrounds of several bush schools are still covered with logs. A working bee on the part of the settlers would soon remedy such defects at the cost of one or two days' trouble. The want of gravel is much felt in some districts. Gymnastic apparatus is in several places in a sad state of dilapidation. A few schools still require saddle-sheds. Buildings, Furniture, etc. —All the buildings have recently been painted, and so, as a rule, ■present a neat outside appearance. On entering, however, defects are very noticeable. The majority are old buildings, that have been put up without any attention to the essential requirements of a good schoolhouse. Thus the walls and. ceilings are often very low, and the ventilation bad ; the windows are lower than the heads of the pupils when sitting, are in some rooms too small, in others too large and unwieldly, with one or both sashes unhung, and the frosting of the lower panes gives them a very dirty appearance. A few of the buildings have been added to from time to time in such a manner that some of the rooms are badly lighted and never get any sun. These remarks do not apply to buildings recently erected, as those at Manaia, Ngaire, Manchester, Beaconsfield, and Stanway, whero well-ventilated rooms are to be found, lighted by windows of the proper size and at the correct height, with both sashes hung, and where the walls are painted and have varnished dados. At the same time I cannot disguise the fact that some schools are conducted in wretched buildings. The largest are singularly wanting in any convenience for teachers, not one in the district boasting of a teacher's private room. In the town of Wanganui, the boys' and girls' schools possess lofty rooms; but a good deal of the money put into the roofs might have been more advantageously spent. In the infants' school the large room is poorly lighted, and, in consequence of the insufficient corridor accommodation, hats have to be hung in the class-rooms—a most undesirable practice. Under the Board's present competent architects a better class of buildings than that formerly in vogue may be confidently looked for. I may mention that several teachers have complained to me about their schoolhouses being used for other than school purposes, and of the dirty state in which the rooms have been left. Smoking chimneys are also a constant source of complaint. The desks in some of the schools are in a very dilapidated state, and are of various plans even in the one room. I hope in the worst cases to have new desks supplied by my next visits of inspection. Ido not approve of the long-length desks at present generally in use. If these be placed close together, one child, when leaving his seat, disturbs several others, and a teacher has not access to each child; if placed apart the desks take up too much room, and the children have no support for their backs. Again, no child can both stand and sit with comfort (in a desk the great desideratum) in a desk with a fixed table and also a fixed seat, for the correct position for writing requires the inner edge of the seat to touch an imaginary vertical line from the inner edge of the table. I much object to these desks also on account of the manner in which female pupils are obliged to get in and out of them, and, again, because they do not allow of any useful class-drill. The Board has now decided to adopt the dual desks as used in Holland and some other countries; but, for the reasons mentioned, I think it would be also advisable to get rid of those of the old style at every opportunity. As the relative sizes of class-rooms and desks were not studied before the buildings were erected, in several schools the desks have to be arranged latitudinally instead of longitudinally. Many schools were in the beginning of the year poorly supplied with black-boards,