E.—4

1890. NEW ZEALAND.

EDUCATION: INSTITUTION FOR DEAF-MUTES. [In Continuation of E.-4, 1889.]

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

No. 1. EXTRACT FROM THIRTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT OP THE MINISTER OP EDUCATION. Deaf-mute Institution. The school at Sumiier, where the mutes are taught to speak, and to read from the lips the speech of others, had forty-two pupils at the end of the year —the same number as at the end of 1887. The total expenditure was £3,253 ss. Bd., and the amount contributed by the parents of the pupils was £253 lls. The expenditure was made up as follows: Salaries, £1,135 ss. lOd. ; board, £1,272 6s. lid. ; rent, £575; travelling, £151 3s. Bd.; sundries, £119 9s. 3d. It is proposed to remove the school to the neighbourhood of Eiccarton, where a site of ten or eleven acres has been acquired by the Government for the purpose, and a sum of money will be put upon this year's estimates for the erection of a suitable building.

No. 2. Bepoet of the Dieectoe. Sib,— Stunner, 22nd May, 1890. I have the honour to forward herewith my tenth report of the Institution for Deaf-Mutes. The process of preparing and cultivating the educational ground of this establishment was again gone through during the year 1889, and the yield of elementary knowledge in the lower classes and of advanced information in the higher was on the whole satisfactory. We began the year with forty inmates, and at the end of the midwinter fourteen days holiday this number increased to forty-two, made up of twenty-five pupils from the South Island, sixteen from the North Island, and one from South Australia ; or, specifying more definitely the various localities from which the pupils are sent, as we have done in previous reports, the numbers stand thus: From the Provincial District of Otago, twelve, viz., one from Orepuki, one from Invercargill, one from Stirling, three from Mosgiel, one from Lawrence, and five from Dunedin; from the Provincial District of Canterbury, eleven, viz., one from Fairlie Creek, one from Methven, one from Yaldhurst, one from Kaiapoi, and seven from Christchurch and suburbs ; from the Provincial District of Nelson, two, viz., one from Waimangaroa and one from Westport; from the Provincial District of Wellington, eight, viz., one from Marton, one from Bulls, and six from Wellington City ; from the Provincial District of Taranaki, one, from Patea; from the Provincial District of Hawke's Bay, one, from Napier; from the Provincial District of Auckland, six, viz., three from the Thames, one from Gisborne, and two from the City of Auckland. The health of the pupils was exceptionally good, not a single one having been laid up for more than a day. This happy result is, I believe, partly due to the constant motherly care bestowed upon the children's minor ailments, such as colds, &c, and to the critical examination of their appearance to which the pupils are daily subjected. Ten fresh children entered at the beginning and eight pupils left the institution at the end of the year, six of the latter for good, and two for twelve months. The brightest of these six is a lad of sixteen, whose parents left him here for the full term of eight years. In him we have a splendid example of what can be done for even the totally deaf-born, by education and training. Not only is he very intelligent and highly honourable, but his mental development has reached the stage from which it will be easy for him to further improve himself by the aid of books and the dictionary. Four others are well advanced also. Their mental development will amply suffice for their entering upon some industrial occupation or for giving valuable help at home. The remaining pupil is- a lad of seventeen, who came to school only four and a half years ago. Though not so well on as the others, yet his progress is highly creditable, and his father will no doubt find his services useful at home. I—B. 4.