E.—2

12

time there was a bountiful supply of bread and butter and tea. Each boy has about twenty ounces of bread per diem. This, with the other articles of food supplied (including potatoes ad libitum) for dinner, should, in my opinion, be enough even for Maori boys. Te Aute College. —This institution is the best of the Native schools. It ought to be so, because its advantages in the way of situation, buildings, and endowments are very great. At the same time, it should be remembered that if these advantages were not made the most of, there are several schools that would soon bring the fact to light by suggesting unfavourable comparisons. The lower school is taught by a Maori, Mr. Walter Wi Paipa. It is thoroughly sound and good. The progress made in English by Mr. Paipa's pupils shows that if thoroughly trained Natives could be got to do the work, and if these should in time develop the power of maintaining discipline iu their classes, it might be worth while, in special cases, to make trial of them again as assistants in the larger schools in Native settlements. The middle portion of this school is the weakest at present; the duller boys have drifted into these classes, and most of them are likely to remain there until they leave the school. It would be useless to promote such boys to the head master's classes; where they are, they are gradually getting their knowledge of reading, writing, arithmetic, and English perfected, and, in fact, are having the best done for them that can be done. The highest classes were, as usual, very good indeed; in truth, it is in these classes only, as far as I know, that an opportunity can be obtained of seeing wdiat Maori lads can do under very favourable circumstances. The mathematical and the science work were particularly good this year. The boys in the senior classes were working for the matriculation examination. Probably the Latin and the English papers would be too difficult for them. The boys had only one year in which to prepare for the examination, and they knew nothing whatever of Latin at the beginning of it. This is altogether too short a time for such work, and failure to pass could hardly be wondered at. Only the most clever among European boys, with English for their mother-tongue, could do the work. ' Nevertheless, two of the Te Aute pupils succeeded in getting through the examination. Perhaps the most admirable thing about this institution is the discipline; there is no unnatural stillness in the schoolroom, but the order is perfect. A better-behaved or harder-working set of boys than the Te Aute scholars could hardly be found anywhere; nearly every boy seems to work and behave as if he believed that the success and character of Te Aute depended entirely upon himself. Attempts have been made during the year to get pupils that have passed through the villageschool course apprenticed to trades. The success attending these efforts has been small hitherto, but a little has been done. This object is altogether too important to be given up lightly, and attempts on the same lines are being renewed, while steps are also being taken to secure that no Maori boy shall leave a secondary school without having a fair amount of acquaintance with the elements of some handicraft. It is to be hoped that within a few months the arrangements for this will be complete. Miscellaneous. Expenditure. —A statement of the expenditure incurred in connection with Native schools, and of the way in which this expenditure is distributed, will be found in Tables Nos. I. and 11. Teachers. —At the end of 1884 there were employed as head teachers in Native schools fifty - ■ five masters and five mistresses ; there were also twenty-two mistresses, three assistant mistresses, and thirty sewing-mistresses. I am glad to be able to bear testimony to the general excellence of the work done by the teachers; there may be an exception here and there, but, as a rule, the teachers are becoming more and more capable year by year, which, indeed, ought to be the case under any fairly satisfactory system. It is gratifying, too, to be able to say that the number of teachers who look upon themselves as the missionaries of civilisation generally, and who do not confine their work to the ordinary school-teaching, is constantly increasing. Nothing has a more salutary effect in the way of making the Natives take a proper interest in their schools than finding that the teachers have the general welfare of the Maoris at heart, and do not look upon their schools merely as a means of getting a livelihood. In one or two cases the teachers seem to be constantly quarrelling with the Natives. Where this is so it is evident that the master has mistaken his vocation. In most districts one or two Natives may be found who are provoking enough; but there is only one case that I can remember in which it has not been quite easy to get over every difficulty of this kind by a persistence in the steady performance of duty and absolute refusal to be one of the parties in a quarrel. It must be a very bad settlement indeed where public opinion would not efficiently protect a teacher acting thus from the annoyance that one or two turbulent characters might try to cause him. Maoris have as good an idea as most people of what is just and fair, and in the long run they nearly always take the right side. It would seem, then, that a teacher who cannot get on amicably with the Natives should try to earn a living in some other way. Committees. —The number of inefficient Committees is gradually diminishing. The Natives are learning what their duties are, and are beginning to understand when their interference is needed and when it is best for them to do nothing at all. In a few cases the Committees still think that their principal duty is to ask the Government to give them flour, sugar, ploughs, and nets ; but this sort of thing is dying out. At some schools the committee-work is done in a most businesslike and satisfactory way; at Kaikohe and Waiomatatini, for instance, the entries in the minute-books, for form, neatness, and precision, would be creditable to the clerk of the Committee of a large European town school. This work is entirely done by the Natives themselves. Several other schools are nearly as good as these two. On the other hand, some few of the Committees are of no use whatever. There is, however, no case in which a Native School Committee is a positive nuisance and a hindrance to education through the members making the committee-room an arena for party-fights and a washhouse for dirty linen. This is something to be thankful for. Attendance. —lt has been stated in other parts of this report that the schools in the north have suffered very severely from a fever epidemic ; this has of course reduced the average attendance at the northern schools very materially. In spite of this drawback, however, the total attendance