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being allowed to reside in turn in teachers' families ; and £287 16s. sd. on sundries, including sewing material to be accounted and paid for. A contribution of £69 18s. 4d. towards this expenditure was made from Native reserve funds. The outlay for boarding-school instruction and apprenticeship—partly by way of subsidy to schools, and partly by way of direct contribution for individual pupils—was £1,745 19s. 4d. The expenditure on Native school buildings was £4,783 13s. 4d. Since the end of the year a new school has been opened at Raukokore (at the eastern end of the Bay of Plenty), and another at Tokomaru (East Coast), where there has been no school in operation for the last few years. Buildings are now in course of erection for new schools at five places on the East Coast (Rangitukia, Tikitiki, Kawakawa, Tuparoa, and Wharekahika), at Te Matai (near Te Puke), at Taita (near Dargaville), and at Tokaanu (on Lake Taupo, near the south end). Places at which new buildings are wanted are Hiruharama (Open Bay), Waipiro, and Rotoiti. The old school at Rotoiti was lately destroyed by fire; and it is proposed to remove the Akuaku school to Hiruharama, where there would be a larger attendance, and establish a side school in connection with it at Waipiro. At Te Ngaere (near Whangaroa) a school that has been closed for three years is about to be reopened. There are proposals for new schools in other places, but negotiations with respect to them have not yet reached the stage of certainty. The schools lately opened and those now approaching completion may be said to have satisfied nearly all urgent demands. Thanks are again due to the gentlemen who in their several districts exercise a local supervision over groups of schools. The Department wishes to acknowledge the valuable services rendered for several years past by Mr. Spencer yon Stunner, until lately Resident Magistrate at Hokianga, but now removed to a district where there are few Maori schools. Mr. Pope's report on the state of the schools (E.-2) will be laid before Parliament. His promised work on " The State," for the use of young people educated in the Native schools, is in the press, and will be ready for circulation in a few days. A very interesting reading book for Second and Third Standard Classes was written by him, and brought into use last year. Institution for Deaf-mutes. The number of pupils at the school at Sumner increased during the year from 37 to 41. A slight change has been made in the organisation of the school by the addition of one junior teacher, with the design of setting the Director at liberty to devote more attention to the supervision and training of his subordinates. This change appeared to be necessary in order to obtain the best results that can be produced by the admirable method of instruction pursued in the institution —the articulation method. The Director's report is printed as a separate paper (E.-3). The expenditure for 1886 was £3,514 12s. Bd., and the recoveries in the shape of payments made by parents amounted to £385 15s. lOd. The expenditure is accounted for as follows: Salaries, £1,065 13s. Bd.; board of pupils, £1,639 14s. 5d.; rent, £401 ss. ; travelling, £172 12s. lOd.; contingencies, £235 6s. 9d. At the end of the year payment was being made (in whole or in part) by the Government, through the Colonial Secretary's Office, for the maintenance and education of six blind pupils sent to Melbourne for instruction, and of one sent to Sydney ; and for instruction in music for a blind youth at Dunedin. Industrial Schools. For several years past the Education Report has included a statement respecting the children both in industrial schools and orphanages. By the operation of " The Hospitals and Charitable Institutions Act, 1885," which has transferred the cost of maintenance of children in orphanages from the Government to local Boards, all responsibility on the part of the Education Department for the care of children in orphanages has been brought to an end. There

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