E.—2

2

sponding percentage (78'5) for the year, at the public schools. It is probable that but for the fact of the Motukaraka school, with an average attendance of 30, being unavoidably, closed during the last quarter of the year, the percentage would have reached 78. The slight falling-off in the number of pupils, notwithstanding the increase in the number of schools, seems to be due to a general decline of the Maori population in some of the settlements where sanitary precautions are much neglected. The number of European children attending the Native schools—many of them the schoolmasters' children—is probably about ,150. Many of the pupils are of mixed race. The returns show that 227 are half-caste, 1,537 Maori or more Maori than half-caste, and 307 are European or more European than Maori. As to their ages —73 are under live years, 1,183 above five but under ten, 805 above ten but under fifteen, and 100 are above fifteen. During the year 039 children passed in the standards of Native school inspection: in Standard 1., 278; in Standard 11., 214; in Standard 111., 106; and in Standard IV., 41. These numbers reduced to percentages of the sum of the number on the rolls of the several schools at the several dates of examination give for Standard 1., 13 ; 11., 10 ; 111., 5; IV., 2 : total, 30. The expenditure, exclusive of the cost of new buildings, and of payments connected with boarding-schools, superior instruction, and apprenticeship, was .£12,304 Bs. 7d. Of this sum .£10,375 3s. 7d. was paid in teachers' salaries and allowances ; £224 for the travelling expenses of teachers when going to new schools ; £380 4s. lOd. for books and school requisites ; £171 10s. 2d. for prizes ; £252 3s. for repairs, planting, and minor works ; £768 10s. sd. for inspection, superintendence, and travelling ; and the remainder, £126 16s. 7d., is for sundries. This cost may be stated as £7 per unit of average attendance, and £5 10s. for each child belonging to the schools. Native reserve funds contributed £211 9s. 9d. towards this expenditure. The expenditure on boarding-schools and apprenticeship was £1,532 15s. Part of this sum was paid in the form of subsidies to the schools, and part as a direct outlay for the benefit of individual children. Treating it as if it were all spent for the direct benefit of the 67 individual children on whose behalf payment was made by the Department, the expenditure was about .£23 for each child. The school at the Chatham Islands, established in 1885, is maintained out of the Native Schools vote. Its affairs have not been taken into account in the foregoing statements. The expenditure in 1885 was £'182 11s. Bd. Only one return of attendance has been received. The number of children that had been admitted in August was 22, of whom 5 were Maoris. Six had left, and the average attendance for six weeks had been 14. It has not yet been possible to obtain a site, on account of differences of opinion as to the most suitable place for a school, and difficulties connected with Native titles to land. The schoolmaster has spent only part of his time at the school, the rest being spent in visits for instruction to distant places for the benefit of 24 children. The expenditure on Native school buildings in 1885 was £4,235 12s. lid. The principal outlay was on new buildings at Waiomatatini, Otaua, Te Ahuahu, Waimamaku, Huria, and Paeroa, and in enlargements at Waima and Colac Bay. Since the end of the year a new building has been finished and opened at Papawai, near Greytown, Wairarapa ; and one at Karetu, Bay of Islands, is to be opened immediately. Tenders have been invited for schools at Tangiteroria (Northern Wairoa), at Kopua near Alexandra, at Tapapa and Te Waotu in the Cambridge District, at Piaukokore in the Bay of Plenty, and at the following places on the East Coast: liangitukia, Tikitiki, Kawakawa, Tuparoa, Wharekahika, and Tokomaru. New schools are urgently required at Te Matai, near Te Puke, and Mokoia, near Lake Rotorua, but at present there are obstacles to the obtaining of titles to the proposed sites. There is every probability that a school will soon be wanted at Tokanu, on Lake Taupo. Mr. Pope, to whose ability and influence the satisfactory state of the schools as a whole is largely due, has expressed his desire to be relieved of some of the most arduous work involved in inspecting schools in places difficult of access. An arrangement has, therefore, been made for a partial exchange of duties