E.—lb

49

is, in not a few instances, poorly fitted to accomplish the desired end quickly and intelligently. Infants are made to repeat and repeat over and over, after the teacher, words and sentences so often that they learn them by rote, and can read as well without the book as with it. A few pupils in a class profit by this kind of instruction, but the majority invariably make very slow and unsatisfactory progress, and remain quite unable to recognise the same or similar words in other combinations. As soon as children know their alphabet they should be taught to build words, and words into sentences, —on the blackboard, first of all, because there, with a little care, every child can see the process of word and sentence building going on, will feel interested in the operation, and can be easily trained to follow; and because, when the words are recognised at a glance, they can be marked off by the teacher into groups for intelligent reading. Then, when the sentence is thoroughly mastered on the board, the children can turn to their books and read the same sentence with comparative ease and pleasure. It may be necessary to state that the dull and careless should have most of the work to do in a lesson of this kind. In a short time, as the children advance, it may be needful to teach in this manner new and difficult words only. I have often been astonished to see teachers, when required to give a reading lesson, say, to Standard 1., Standard 11., or Standard 111., for the first time, start them off to read at once, without the slightest preliminary preparation in the way of mastering the new words, which in most books are printed at the beginning or end of the lesson. The reading in such cases was halting, meaningless to the children, and of course devoid of anything like intelligent expression—and no wonder. In grammar an error of method is often committed by attempting to parse a word before its function or use in a sentence has been investigated. This is like putting the cart before the horse, and seriously prevents intelligent and rapid progress. But the first step in teaching a knowledge of the parts of speech is seldom taken at all, except, it may be, in some of the best schools, and that is the analysis of the sentence to be parsed. Analysis may seem a formidable word to use in connection with the grammar of Standard 111. and Standard IV., and may be characterised as '' profound trifling ;'' but really no sentence can be understood without analysis either conscious or unconscious. It is not at all necessary, of course, to go into elaborate details, and make use of such technical terms as " subject " and "predicate,1 "attribute of subject" and " adjunct of predicate," and so forth. All that is needed is to find out what is spoken about in a sentence, what is said about that thing, and, if necessary, what kind of a thing it is, and how, when, or where what is said about it took place. A child in Standard I. and lower could be taught to find out this much in ten minutes by going the right way about it, and he could not understand a short sentence without knowing this. The order of procedure, then, ought to be: First, analysis of sentence; second, function of words ; and third, parts of speech. The methods employed in teaching arithmetic have considerably improved of late. Not only is the direct instruction given in this subject on the blackboard clear and reasoned out from first principles, but the work of the pupils at desk is, as a rule, methodically and intelligently set out, and they are often able to account for every step in the process they employ. Instances, however, are not wanting of inability on the part of the pupils to give an intelligent account of their work, and wherever rules, to the almost entire exclusion of first principles, are followed this is the case. Wherever pupils have a large amount of time to devote to arithmetic at desks they should be required to work out at least a large proportion of their sums by first principles, and the junior classes especially should be exercised to a much greater extent with the applications of arithmetic to every-day life, after they have become familiar with the more mechanical processes. Before concluding this report I wish to make one or two remarks about reading and writing. Eeading has for years been satisfactory as far as mere verbal accuracy is concerned, but it has taken a considerable amount of pressure to have it rendered with taste and natural expression. It is satisfactory to be able to state that the number of schools in which expressive and intelligent reading may be heard has of late been largely increased. At the same time, and at the risk of being charged with harping much on one string, I would urge further and more general improvement in this important subject. Grand elocutionary displays are not looked for—these should rather be discouraged, as being often unnatural—but-merely reading with natural modulation of voice, as in ordinary everyday conversation. More than half the battle waged on behalf of intelligent reading would be won did teachers take the trouble of first discovering the emphatic word in a sentence, and then insisting on the necessity of their pupils giving emphasis to these and no others if their reading is to be at all intelligent. How often has one to listen to reading in which the words immediately preceding pauses are invariably made the emphatic ones ! Such reading is extremely tiresome, and ought to be rejected as unworthy of a pass. Writing is almost uniformly good, and shows great care and attention on the part both of teachers and pupils. The only suggestion I have to make regarding it is that in the higher standards, such as Standard V. and Standard VI., greater rapidity in writing should be practised. In most schools the writing of these classes, though good, is often painfully slow, and somewhat wasteful of valuable time. Besides, when pupils leave school and enter upon the business of life comparatively rapid writing will become a necessity of their altered position. It would be well, then, that they should acquire by degrees facility in writing what is called a current hand, in order to be better fitted to meet the requirements of their changed circumstances; otherwise their handwriting will for a time, if not permanently, suffer considerable deterioration. I have to state, in conclusion, that the schools of this district are on the whole well managed and taught, and that those in charge of them, though not all equally capable, are, with a very few doubtful exceptions, faithful and conscientious in the discharge of their very onerous duties. I have, &c, The Secretary, Otago Education Board. W. Taylok, Inspector.

7—E. Ib.