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The number of children on the rolls of the ordinary Native schools in December was 2,512, and the average attendance for the last quarter of the year was 1,99(5. For the whole year the average attendance was 2,070. The roll number (2,512) is made up of 241) half-castes, 1,825 Maoris, and 438 Europeans. The boys numher 1,412; the girls, 1,100. There are 76 pupils below five years of age, 1,334 between five and ten, 998 between ten and fifteen, and 104 above the age of fifteen. During the year 420 pupils passed the First Standard, 198 passed the Second, 122 the Third, and 63 the Fourth or highest standard of the Maori school code. At the end of 1888 there were 65 masters in charge of Native schools, with salaries from £205 to £48; 9 mistresses, £150 to £48; 25 assistant mistresses, £55 to £15; and 41 sewing mistresses, receiving £20 each. The expenditure on account of buildings, fencing, and school furniture for the year amounts to £1,44 L I.Bs. 7d. The other expenditure (towards the defraying of which the sum of £210 Is. was received from Native Reserves Funds) amounts to £15,547 Us. id., made up of the following items: Teachers' salaries and allowances (including £"25 for loss of office), £11,677 145.; removals of teachers, £103 16s. Bd. ; hooks and school requisites, £400 15s. 4d.; prizes, £227 6s. Id.; repairs and minor works, £374 13s. 3d.; inspection and superintendence, including travelling, £761 2s. 7d.; grants in aid of musical instruments and games, £'3 ]4s. 6d.; allowance to teachers for receiving Maori girls, in turn, into their families, £30; boarding schools, £1,600 ss. 9d.; sundries, £358 os. lid. Mr. Pope's report is, as usual, a very interesting paper. His work of inspection, in which he is relieved from time to time by Mr. Kirk, includes one annual visit, which is never omitted, to every Native school, from Te Kao, in the extreme north of the Auckland District, to Stewart Island; and this work is most efficiently supplemented by the more frequent visits of the District Superintendents—Mr. H. W. Bishop' R.M., Mr. J. H. Greenway, Air. R. S. Bush, R.M., and Mr. J. Booth, R.M.—to whom the thanks of the Department are due for their zealous and judicious help.

No. 2. The Inspector of Native Schools to the Tnspectob-Genebal of Schools. Sib,— Wellington, 12th February, 1889. In accordance with the terms of your general instructions, I have the honour to send you my report on the condition of the Native schools of New Zealand during the year 1888. Numbeb of Schools. ■ Eighty-four schools have been in operation during the whole of the year or some portion of it. At the end of 1888 there were seventy-nine schools—viz., sixty-five village schools, ten subsidised schools, and four boarding-schools. Changes: Schools opened ob closed. Only two schools have been opened during the year, each of them a side school. The removal of the bulk of the Native population from Maungatapu, on account of the unhealthiness of the site, rendered the opening of an auxiliary school at Ngapeke advisable. The other new side school has been opened at Hawai, four miles from Torere. The Torere school seemed to be insufficient for the wants of the district, and the number of the people living at Hawai seemed to justify an extension of the school accommodation. Five schools were closed in the course of the year. At Lower Waihou no appreciable results were forthcoming, and therefore the arrangement under which the school there was worked in connection with that at Whakarapa was terminated. The attendance at Pakia was of such a nature that it was considered advisable to hand the school over to the Auckland Board. The smallness and the extreme irregularity of the attendance at Ohinemutu made the continuance of the school unwarrantable. Similar circumstances led to the closing of the schools at Ngunguru and Waitetuna. New Schools and New Buildings, and Eeopening of Schools that have been closed. The Te Teko school, which was closed in consequence of the volcanic outbreak in 1886, should now be reopened, as there is a large Native population, and the people are very anxious to get their children educated. The necessity for building at Porqporo, near Whakatane, is pointed out and emphasized further on in this report. The utter lack of accommodation for the school and for the teacher and his family is most deplorable. A school has been asked lor at Pakaraka, eleven miles from Ohinemutu ;it funds were available a school might be established there. It is desirable that a side school should be opened at Kenana, near Maugonui, to be worked along with the Peria