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rience with the work now asked for in Native schools, they will do very well indeed. It seems probable that the ultimate success of this experimental school is now secured. Fort Galatea. —This isolated school gave satisfactory standard results; and if it can be kept up to its present state of efficiency it will be well worth the money expended upon it. This is not a school at which a teacher should be kept for any great length of time ; it is too much out of the world. Galatea is a rather pretty and striking-looking place when once it is reached; but the approach to it from all sides is through what is virtually a desert. The master, who has been lately removed, had to pack all his stores from Te Teko, a distance of thirty-three miles. This difficulty is now, to a certain extent, removed; but it has been considered fair to give the teacher a special allowance to meet the extra expenses caused by the imperfect means of communication with other places. On the whole, a person who cared little for society might spend two or three years here pleasantly enough, and if he put heart into his work might benefit the Natives very much indeed. Certainly the Galatea Natives require as much help as they can get, the circumstances by which they are surrounded being anything but cheering. East Coast. Mr. James Booth, 8.M., Gisborne, is the District Superintendent here. Mr. Booth believes —and my opinion fully coincides with his—that the Natives of this part of the colony have now become fully aware that they must get their children taught in schools if they are to hold their own either with Europeans or with the Natives of more advanced parts of the colony. A very great change has taken place during the last year or two in the attitude of the East Coast Natives towards the subject of education. Formerly education was looked upon as quite an unimportant matter; but all the intelligent Maoris that I have conversed with lately consider it to be, next to those affecting the tenure and disposal of land, the most important subject. There is little doubt, if the opportunity . can be seized just now (before the Natives get tired out with delay and so give the thing up as hopeless), that schools may be successfully established all along the coast, and Native education be promoted to such an extent as to make the Ngatiporou (who, by the bye, are amongst the shrewdest of Maoris) as well-educated and civilized as the Barawa and Ngapuhi of North Auckland, or the Natives of the South Island. The expense will, of course, be considerable; but certainly if so great an advantage can be gained by it the expenditure will be more than justified. Mr. Booth is now rendering most valuable aid to the Department in its efforts to get this important work done as speedily and effectively as possible. Uawa, Tolago Bay. —This school was closed when I last visited the district. Later on the Natives asked, almost unanimously, that it should be reopened, and promised to do their best to keep up a good attendance. Accordingly a master and mistress were sent to them, and school-work was begun shortly after the New Year. Akuaku.- —The state of matters here is unsatisfactory and has been so for a long time. One of the principal drawbacks is irregular attendance. This is caused to some extent by the unfavourable circumstances of the school, which are as follows : Akuaku is a very small settlement, and only five of the school-children belong to it; many things go to prove that the Akuaku people are strongly impressed with the idea that the teacher is an official whose principal duty is to feed their children and to give themselves whatever they ask for; Whareponga and Waipiro, the two settlements that really supply children for the school, are situated respectively two and three miles from Akuaku, and when the tide is high or the weather is bad it is almost impossible for the children of either settlement to go to school. The proper remedy appears to be the removal of the Akuaku school to Whareponga and the establishment of another school at Waipiro, to be worked along with the main school by a master and mistress. Waiomatatini. —This has always been a very important school, but it has laboured under the great disadvantage of being held in an unsuitable building. Now the schoolhouse and residence are no longer available, as they are required by the Natives for other purposes. Accordingly, new and suitable buildings are in course of being erected. The Natives have shown great liberality and public spirit in getting this matter pushed forward, and have proved themselves to be, as always, eagerly desirous of getting their children properly educated. The Natives of Wai-o-matatini and those of Te Horo had quite a friendly contest as to who should give the necessary site. Although the land offered by the latter was found to be, on the whole, the more suitable, and was consequently accepted, the Waiomatatini people deserve a full share of the credit, seeing that they were ready and anxious to give for school purposes some of the best land they had. Wairarapa and the South Island. There is no District Superintendent for these schools. They are nearly all within easy reach of the central office, and the Superintendent's work is carried on there. Papawai. —Nothing has yet been done in the way of securing a site and building a school here. Manihera, the chief, speaks as if the matter could be settled in a very short time, and so he did at my two previous visits ; but nothing comes to pass. It is hard to say where the hitch is; but it is probably caused by the unwillingness of the Maoris to give any more land, when they consider that they have already given too much for religious and educational purposes. Any way it is much to be regretted that a suitable school cannot be established. Te Oreore. —A difficulty exists here also. The Natives appear to be willing enough to give a site for a proper building, but the legal difficulties in the way seem to be insuperable. The building used as a schoolroom is thoroughly unsuitable, and now that the Natives live in the teacher's former quarters, and use the schoolroom as an eating, sleeping, and dancing room, the arrangements are more unsatisfactory than ever. At my previous visit I found the schoolroom, furniture, and material in some sort of decent order; but now everything is "at sixes and sevens." It is to be hoped that it will in some way be found possible to have a decent building and a properly organized school here, seeing that there is no reason to doubt that under fairly favourable circumstances a very good attendance could be maintained at Te Oreore. 2—E. 2.