E.—2

15

approaching when it will be possible to deal with weakness in English (and, indeed, in other subjects) exactly as it would be dealt with in a public school by a strict Inspector. It seems very plain that teachers who are not up to their work, and those who do not care to be up to it, will, as time goes on, find it more and more difficult to keep a good place among their fellow-teachers. In fact, it is not easy to see how they will be able to keep any place at all. There is, however, a way out of the difficulty, and this way is open to all. A very careful study of the circular above referred to, and honest and sustained attempts to put into practice the principles therein stated, could hardly fail to bring a teacher and his school up to the mark. Two of the most important of the directions implied in the circular may be very briefly stated as follows : Teachers must be ever on their guard against thinking that reading or speaking that is intelligible to them must be satisfactory, and ought to be accepted by an Inspector as English ; and it must never be imagined that mere practice, unless it is the practice of what is correct, can gradually produce correctness in reading and speaking, or, indeed, in anything else. The circular here referred to is, I believe, to be printed in the body of the Minister's report, as is also another circular relating to the keeping of the school records and the penalties to be inflicted when this work is carelessly done. One case has occurred in which the new rules have been enforced. Our Staff, and the Spirit in which its Work is done. —When it is remembered that our staff consists for the most part of persons who were quite inexperienced as teachers when they took up the work, and that, besides this, they were selected on no very definite principle, except such as results from a general desire to obtain the services of the most intelligent and trustworthy people, it is rather to be wondered at that so many should have shown very decided aptitude for teaching, and that a considerable number have become very capable teachers, with a truly professional interest in their work. It will be easily understood that this kind of interest is not one that can be simulated, seeing that its effects, when it really exists, must be plainly visible in the schoolroom, in the work done, and in the general surroundings. One gets into the way of speaking of interest in the work as if it were really a kind of natural endowment; but it is not strictly correct to do so. The power of feeling interest in Native-school work does, in the case of a new and untrained teacher, certainly depend to a -large extent on the possession of a certain alacrity of thought—of power to get out of a groove,—on a strong desire to understand one's duty and to do it, and on the capability of watching with sympathy the development of uncultured minds and characters. But all these qualifications may in the long run be secured by any one who is able to set himself to do what he finds just at hand, and who is not constantly looking for some imaginary good that is a very long w 7 ay off. The actual honest doing of Native-school work will inevitably make him who does it ready in coping with his peculiar difficulties, and, above all, fond of his pupils, and able to deal with them satisfactorily. To put it in the language of the day, " successful functioning becomes pleasant functioning." The conscientious performance of even uncongenial duties leads by-and-by to real interest and pleasure, and, in the end, perhaps, to complete satisfaction. There are teachers on our staff who, as far as one can judge, take as much pleasure in their newly-acquired professional skill as they would have taken if they had been " to the manner born," and this although the earlier parts of their lives have been spent in work almost as remote as possible from that which now engages their attention. There is needed, after all, only one of our old proverbs slightly modified to express the very root of the whole matter, " Where there's a will, there's a way that soon becomes pleasant." A brief reference to the labours of my respected colleague, Mr. H. B. Kirk, M.A., may fitly conclude this report. The work that used to be done entirely by him is hardly better done because a considerable part of it is now done by me ; but I am quite sure that the supervision of Native schools has been more effective since he began to take a large share in it. I am, &c, The Inspector-General of Schools. James H. Pope.