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framed, and in the syllabus of subjects English, in which candidates at the last examination were very weak, was made a prominent feature. By these regulations all pupil-teachers are to receive at least five hours' instruction each school-week, extending over not less than four days, and pupilteachers of the two junior classes are restricted to four hours' teaching each day. I hope that in future satisfactory results will be obtained; but I have grave doubts of the wisdom of the whole pupil-teacher system as arranged in this colony, if only some other could be found to supply its place. As we have the system, I think that passing the Sixth Standard with ease should be made one of the conditions of first employment, so that the pupil-teacher would then find little difficulty with his future examinations. Cadets.—ln addition to the 138 teachers mentioned, fifteen cadets are employed. Cadets may be termed pupil-teachers on probation, as employed by the London School Board. Pupils, to be eligible for appointment, must have passed the Fifth Standard. These cadets receive instruction for five hours each week, like pupil-teachers, but, unlike them, get no salary, and are required to teach for only three hours each day, being regarded as ordinary pupils of the school for the remaining two hours. On passing the Sixth-Standard or Fourth-Class examination they are eligible for pupilteacherships, and receive appointments as vacancies offer. Formerly, each year as a cadet counted as a full year as a pupil-teacher after promotion to the higher grade, and this arrangement was partly responsible for some of the worst failures at the examination. Now, cadets and pupilteachers alike take whatever position they acquire by examination, not by length of service. Some cadets are at present qualified for Fourth-Class pupil-teachers, but remain as they are because they will not accept office at a distance from home. I may here remark that the practice of appointing pupil-teachers at the schools where they have been educated is by no means advisable if it can possibly be avoided. It is not easy for a boy to keep order in his class, and command the respect of children who a short time previously were his playmates, and to whom he was, and probably still is, known as "Jack" or " Tom." Several head teachers have spoken to me on this matter. The youth of the pupil-teachers and the small amount of their salaries naturally make their parents anxious to keep them at home. Visits op Inspection.—ln all I paid sixty-five visits of inspection. I was obliged to omit seven schools north of Wanganui—Ngaire, Kakaramea, Whenuakura, and the aided schools at Whakamara and Momahaki—for during the week I had set apart for them my presence was unexpectedly required in the southern portion of the district. At my visits the state of the buildings, playgrounds, &c, was inquired into, and also all matters in connection with the management of the schools. Beports of these inspections were sent to the Committees and to your Board. At the majority of schools I taught classes in one or more subjects, and, both verbally and by entries in the log-books, gave teachers any suggestions or instructions that I thought would be of service to them. Of these suggestions advantage was generally taken, and in several instances they bore good fruit at the examination in standards. I should wish to be able to give in future more time to visits of inspection, and so more assistance to teachers, especially to those in charge of small schools, with .all, or nearly all, the standards to teach. Owing, however, to the great extent of the district, the increasing number of schools, and the amount of examination work, that I shall be able to do so is doubtful. I will now make a few remarks upon what I saw at these visits. Appeaeance op Schools. —I was constantly obliged to find fault with the general appearance of the class-rooms. Too often were window-sills deep in dust; tops of cupboards and mantelpieces loaded with waste paper, copy-books, ink-wells, slate-pencils, &c; fireplaces filled with soot-stained fragments of paper; or desks besmeared with ink. Each one of these is perhaps in itself a small fault; still, it tells a tale of general practice, and does its share towards the formation of habits in children. Teachers should use all means in their power to train their pupils in habits of neatness and order, and to educate them into a perception of the beautiful and a desire for refined and tasteful surroundings. The teacher at Warrengate has shown an example in this direction that might well be followed by others. It is very needful to guide a child's early aesthetic associations, not only on account of the permanence of impressions during the first years of his life, but also because the results will be constantly referred back to, consciously or unconsciously, as the first rough standards of judgment. " Whoever carries into his home a feeling of discomfort and aesthetic rebellion against dirt, vulgarity, and untidiness, has learned a lesson which is of considerable value as a foundation for an orderly life." Lancaster's rule—" A place for everything, and everything in its place " —-is especially applicable to primary schools. Charts, maps, and pictures may be well hung, ferns and brackets placed in the rooms, gardens made in the playgrounds, and many other things done, with little trouble and no expense, that tend to make children loyal to, and proud of, their schools, and, as a consequence, promote regular attendance. At a few schools, notaoly Goat Valley, flower-gardens have been laid out and neatly kept. Children are always glad to help their teachers in matters of this kind. I found the desks in some schools very dirty and much cut about. Children should be taught respect for public property, and care in handling things which do not belong to them. It is therefore unadvisable to allow the schoolroom to be used for play out of school-hours, when there is no supervision. This habit of injuring school property is common enough in some higher schools for boys, and it is occasionally advanced that what is allowed in the Home public schools may well be permitted in primary schools in the colony. The argument is absurd. Assuming that it is right to allow wilful defacing of furniture, the hometraining and circumstances of pupils in both classes of schools are different. After casting back my memory to my own public-school days, while seeing something to admire in the then system of " teaching " —I cannot say " education " —and management, I also see much that I should be very sorry to see introduced into our primary schools. For instance, the permission of wanton damage by boys to their own, their class-mates', and the school property, argued an utter ignorance of, and indifference to, the moral side of education. On my examination visits I found a great improvement in these matters of untidiness of which I have just complained, and many classrooms were very tastefully decorated. This decoration on one of the most important days of a