E.—l

The Public Works vote of 1884-85 for school buildings was £68,300, of which £8,300 was for liabilities already incurred by the Department, and £3,750 was set aside for industrial and Native schools. Of the remainder, £50,000 was divided among the districts in proportion to their population, and £6,250 with regard to other conditions. The payments made by the Government to or on account of the Boards for buildings include this £56,250, together with £1,824 as a liability to the creditors of the old Westland Board (included in the general liabilities of £8,300 referred to above), £150 from the share of the Native schools, to assist a Board in providing accommodation for Maori children, £300 from a separate vote for providing recreation-grounds, and £484 15s. from a vote for reinstating buildings destroyed or damaged by fire. The proportion of the building vote due to Westland and Grey was paid partly to the Boards, but in part —to the extent of £624 Bs. 7d.—to creditors of the old Westland Board, who received altogether £2,448 Bs. 7d. on account of buildings. The Public Works vote for school buildings for 1885-86 remained intact at the end of the year. Table O shows the general distribution of the building expenditure :—

TABLE O. —School-Buildings' Expenditure.

The financial position of the several Boards has been ascertained from their statements of assets and liabilities. These statements vary in form, and their real meaning will be best seen in a summary in which they are reduced to a common form, as in Tables P and Q. The sum of £57,600 from the vote for school buildings in 1885 was available for distribution to the Boards in the first quarter of 1886, and some of the Boards have included their share of the amount in their statement of assets. In the compilation of Table P every Board's share of this money has been reckoned as an asset, and any other sums due from the Government to the Boards at the end of the year have been treated in the same way; while, on the other hand, sums received by the Boards from School Commissioners, and to be accounted for and deducted from the payments from Government to the Boards, have been applied in reduction of such assets, and not stated as liabilities. Some of the Boards included stocks of books as assets; these have been excluded as not being money assets. An expected payment from School Commissioners has been omitted, in the same way as the actual payments that had to be applied in reduction of later payments made by the Government.

XIII

Education Districts. •si rr G O 3 «l of . o O O S5 \A Expei iditure in 1885 upon School Furniture and Appliances not included in the procoding. Plans, Supervision, and othor Expenses. Total. New Buildings. Improvements, Enlargements, Eepairs, &c. Purchase of Sites. Auckland raranaki Wanganui Wellington Hawke's Bay Marlborough Nelson North Canterbury South Canterbury Westland 3rey 3tago Southland 209 33 74 62 39 30 84 146 46 22 16 175 85 112 34 19 .. 40 8 33 3 27 3 16 9 36 10 139 6 3G 1 131 .. 10: .. 173; 7 G7 4 721 85 706 88 15 1 -3 £ s. d. 3,779 15 3 1,552 11 10 998 9 9 5,356 3 0 4,398 7 8 258 15 0 940 8 0 3,602 6 4 2,226 13 6 353 13 6 1 157 10 0 6,653 7 ll| 2.3G3 18 0 £ s. d. 2,892 1 7 221 13 6 2,219 13 9 2,547 19 9 913 0 8 493 8 C! 1,264 G 3! 3,684 17 10 371 2 31 499 11 5 646 2 0 1,904 9 0 1,501 3 1| £ s. d. 1,170 2 7 27 14 0 2 4 6 507 4 7 137 10 6 66 1 3 161 6 2 1,126 16 9 298 13 2 24 18 2 122 16 0 399 0 5 65 17 11 £ s. d. 204 13 4 31 2 6 100' 0 0 27 15 0 15 0 0 145 16 6 1C8 13 0 £ s. d. 479 11 7 62 19 6 139 16 9 375 4 3 283 4 6 32 2 9 644 3 2 128 6 3 59 17 0 27 5 0 694 7 9 216 19 3 £ s. d. 8,526 4 4 1,896 1 4 3,360 4 9 8,886 11 7 5,732 3 4 850 7 6 2,393 15 5 9,073 4 1 3,170 11 8 1,106 13 1 953 13 0 12,048 18 7 4,374 18 1 2,397*13 6 226 19 10 •Totals for 1885 Totals for 1884 1021 987 32,641 19 9' 29,571 19 2 19,159 9 7 12,157 4 6 4,110 6 0 3,744 19 0 3,317 13 8 1,722 17 3 3,143 17 9 2,482 1 5 62,373 6 9 49,679 1 4 Difference 34 112,694 5 5 3,070 0 7j 7,002 5 1 365 7 0 1,594 16 5 661 16 4 • Items amountini to £2,448 8s. 7d., iaid to extini ;uish claims a$ ;ainst the old AVestland Board, are excluded from this table.