E.—2

10

inspection there is some important improvement to report here, but the advance made this year is very striking .indeed. Doth the lavatory and gymnasium are now really first-rate ; the former contains plunge-baths, foot-baths, shower-bath, wash-basins, &c, and is altogether very complete. The latter might seem to be on even too large a scale if one did not know how many useful purposes it is intended to subserve and will subserve : it is to be gymnasium, play-shed, shelter-shed, and extra class-room. The drawing and the drill here deserve special mention. The free-hand drawing is quite remarkably well done ; and for drill the 1889 regulation exercises are gone through in a style that I have not seen surpassed at any school. The Native College, Te Aute, Hawke's Bay. —The buildings have been found to be no longer adequate for the work that has to be done in them, and therefore extra accommodation is to be provided for twenty-five boys. It has not yet been found possible to make satisfactory improvements in the sanitary arrangements ; this is a matter that urgently needs attention and consequent action. The boys' gardens—a feature of the place—are neat and trim, and the grounds generally present a very pleasing appearance. An inspection of the kitchen, living-rooms, dormitories, &c, took place, and everything was found to be in good order. The kitchen is very remarkable for its neat and tidy appearance. The code requirements as regards technical work are fully satisfied. Among articles recently turned out of hand the following may be mentioned: an easy-chair, a dressing-table, and gymnastic apparatus. The boys seem to have gained quite a useful amount of skill in the use of carpenters' tools, to say nothing of the training of hand and eye which the obtaining of such skill implies. The school work was, as usual, found to be very sound and thorough, and the workers have this year achieved what must be considered remarkable success. For an ordinary secondary school to obtain three matriculation passes could hardly be thought a very striking feat, but when the passes have been won by candidates using a foreign language for the expression of ideas quite alien in every sense to the mental habitudes of their race, the small success really becomes a great triumph. The names of the three successful candidates are Apirana Turupa, John Damon, and Tiweka Anaru. When I examined the school, on the 25th and 26th November, the average percentages gained by these lads in an examination in English, arithmetic, algebra, Euclid, history, chemistry, and Latin were 91-8, 77-2, 60-7. In the senior sixth class the subjects were the same, except that most of the boys took New Zealand law and government instead of Latin, and that the papers were less difficult than those set for the matriculation boys. The ten boys in this senior sixth clasj. made an average percentage of 61-5. It is unnecessary to go into details with regard to each class; it is sufficient to say that all of them did well, and nearly all of them very well. There is one point that needs particular mention. Formerly the head-master attended to the instruction of the most advanced pupils, and contented himself, as most head-masters do, with indicating the line that his juniors should take, and carefully examining the results obtained. Now, however, a firm hold is kept by the head-master of the progressive attainment of each pupil, and each pupil knows that he is in close relation with the head-master, and cannot, if careless or indolent, escape notice. The general effect of this constant superintendence is that the school appears to move all in a piece, so to say, and not as if under the influence of imperfectly co-ordinated efforts. After making this detailed statement it is perhaps unnecessary for me to say that the institution is really an admirable one. Te Makarini Scholarships Examinations .—These examinations took place, as usual, in the middle of last December. The candidates were all Te Aute boys, and consequently the ordinary rule which gives one scholarship to a boy from a boarding-school and two to village-school pupils could not be acted upon. The trustees of the fund decided under the circumstances to give a senior scholarship to Benata Paratene, formerly of Waiomatatini, and a junior scholarship to Hatara Kereama; the third scholarship was awarded to Apirana Turupa, dux of Te Aute for the year, to enable him to pursue his studies further, at Te Aute or elsewhere. I understand that the trustees have under consideration proposals for widening the influence of these scholarships by making them more accessible to pupils who have not yet had the advantage of boarding-school training, and for securing at the same time, by means of a new provision, the continuance of the beneficial influence that the scholarships now undoubtedly exert on Native education by keeping a high standard constantly before the minds of those engaged in Native-school work. Statistics. A statement of the expenditure incurred in connection with Native schools will be found in Tables Nos. 1 and 2of the Appendix. Table No. 3 gives the ages of the children whose names were on the Native-school rolls at the end of the December quarter. Table No. 4 contains statistics of the attendance during the year 1890. In Table No. 5 there is full information with regard to the race of the children who attend Native schools. Table No. 6 shows the examination results for the the year, and Table No. 7 gives the inspection results, which, together with those obtained at examination, form the basis for computing the gross percentage on which the relative position of each school for the year 1890 depends. So much room has been taken up with the digests of the reports on individual schools that the remainder of this document must be greatly compressed; therefore the usual analysis of the statistics will not be given. For two reasons, however, the inconvenience caused by the omission will be small. In the first place I understand that the Hon. the Minister's report deals at considerable length with Native schools; in the second place there are only two features in the table that really need any special notice. The first of these is an innovation that is to be found in Table No. 4. In this table the schools are arranged in order with reference to the regularity of attendance of the pupils belonging to them. A similar plan was adopted some years ago for comparing the gross percentages obtained by the various schools, and the plan has been adhered to ever since—with beneficial results, as it seems. The other matter that requires a word or two of comment is the falling-off of this year's attendance to the extent of about 8 per cent, of the average