B.- 2

1886. NEW ZEALAND.

EDUCATION: NATIVE SCHOOLS. (In Continuation of E.-2, 1885.)

Presented to both Houses of the General Assembly by Command of His Excellency.

No. 1. Extract feom Ninth Annual Repobt ov the Ministeb of Eduoatiom. At the beginning" of 1885 there were 55 Native village schools in operation, 5 subsidised schools, 3 half-time schools, and G boarding-schools. During the year the village school at Ruapiike, near Stewart Island, has been closed, owing to the death of the Rev. -I. H. F. Wohlers, after forty-two years of faithful work among the Maori people of the settlement : the population is too small to justify the establishment of another teacher there. The school at Otago Heads lias been transformed into an ordinary public school, under the control of the Education Board of the district. The Roman Catholic boarding-school at Meanee, near Napier, has been closed: it may, perhaps, be revived on a new model. The subsidised school at Pakia, having achieved respectable success, has been converted into an ordinary village school. Two new village schools have been opened—at Otaua, in the Hokianga District; and at Te Ahuahu, near Waimate, Bay of Islands. Two schools that had been closed for a time have been reopened—one at Matakohe, in the Kaipara District, and the other at Tologa Bay, East Coast. Two subsidised schools have been opened—at Taumarere, Bay of Islands; and D'Urville Island, in the Nelson Provincial District. The number of schools in operation at the end of the year was 72, of which 59 were village schools, 5 subsidised, 3 half-time schools, and 5 boarding-schools. There were 58 masters (with salaries ranging from .£205 to £60), 7 mistresses (from ,£155 to .£7O 10s.), 25 assistant-mistresses (from ,£35 to £20), and 30 sewing-mistresses (.£2O each). The number of children sent to boarding-schools by the Department and receiving instruction in them was 67. These were distributed among the several schools as follows : 25 boys at St. Stephen's, Parnell; 10 boys .at Te Ante, Hawke's Bay; 20 girls at Hukarere, Napier; 11 girls at St. Joseph's, Napier; and 1 girl at St. Mary's, Ponsonby. Besides the Government pupils there were at the end of the year 76 children of the Native race attending these schools, the cost of their maintenance being paid from the endowments of the several institutions. Of these pupils there were 30 girls at Hukarere, 11 boys at St. Stephen's, and 35 boys at Te Ante. In the other schools there were at the end of the year 1,215 boys and 94(5 girls (total 2,161), less by 61 than at the end of 1884. The average attendance for the last quarter of 1885 was 957 boys and 744 girls (total, 1,701), or 76\5 per cent, of the mean number on the books. This is rather less than the corre--I—E. 2.