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£13 15s. 4d., sundries, £73 10s. sd. The net expenditure is reduced to £12,405 6s. 3d. by the contribution of £83 ss. 6d. from Native reserve funds. The cost of lantern-lectures is a new item. The sum of £13 15s. 4d. that appears m the foregoing statement was expended on an experiment tried at three or four schools. An arrangement has been made for extending the experiment to all the Native schools. Two lectures at least will be given at each school, with very good lantern illustrations in natural history and physiology, with hygienic aims, varied with geographical pictures and other interesting matter The epidemic of measles seriously affected the attendance at Native schools in 1893, and made heavy demands on the skill and kindness of many of the teachers, who were kept busy dispensing medicines and giving instruction and help in sick-nursmg The average weekly number of pupils belonging to the village schools was 2,220, and the average attendance was 1,585, which is 71 - 4 per cent, of the number belonging With respect to race, 10 per cent, of the whole number on the school-rolls are described as half-caste, 16J per cent, as European or inclining to European, and 73i per cent, as Maori or inclining to Maori. (For Maori children attending ordinary public schools, see statement following Table B ) Forty-five per cent, of the pupils are above the age of ten years. At the Native boarding-schools for boys there were at the end of the year 24 Government scholars and 87 others, as follows At St. Stephen's, Auckland, 13 scholars and 30 other pupils , at Te Aute, Hawke's Bay, 11 scholars and 57 others, including 15 Europeans. At the girls' schools the numbers were —-At Hukarere, Napier, 13 Government scholars and 26 others , at St. Joseph's, Napier, 25 Government pupils and 22 others. There is a prospect of heavy demands for buildings for Native schools. It is always difficult to make an estimate in this respect, because of the customary delays in obtaining titles to Native lands. Within the last few days the necessary title has been secured for a school long wanted at Arowhenua. The state of the several schools at the following places will justify the erection of buildings as soon as titles are ready Otamauru (near Whakatane), Te Houhi (Urewera country), Te Teko (where for years the school has been carried on in dilapidated old police-buildings, quite unsuitable), and at Whangaruru (south of the Bay of Islands) With respect to new schools that cannot be instituted until conveyances are ready, Iruharama (near Waipiro Bay) is likely to be important, and there are promising openings at Tarukenga (near Kotorua), Ruatoki (northern Urewera), Taumarunui (upper Wanganui), Pipiriki (middle Wanganui), and Mawhitiwhiti (near Normanby) The old. school-buildings at Lake Eotoiti should be removed to the neighbourhood of Te Ngae as soon as the difficulty relating to the site is overcome , and it is almost certain that the Mangamuka school buildings will have to be removed to a more convenient site and reopened.
No. 2. The Inspector of Native Schools to the Tnspectob-Geneeal of Schools. Sib,— Wellington, 31st March, 1894. In accordance with the terms of your standing instructions, I have the honour to lay before you my report on the general condition of the Native schools of New Zealand, and on the work done in them during the year 1893. Numbbb of Schools, At the end of the year 1892 there were sixty-eight schools in full working-order In the course of 1893 four schools were opened and six were closed. During the year, therefore—or some portion of it—seventy-two schools were in operation, and at the end of the year sixty-six schools were open—viz., sixty-two village schools, and four boarding-schools. Changes—New Schools opened, and Schools reopened ob closed. In the middle of the year a school was opened at Otamauru, on the Orini Eiver, near Whakatane, as an experiment. A Maori building is being made to answer the purpose temporarily, but the experiment appears to be sufficiently successful to warrant the placing of the school on a more permanent basis. Later on, operations were begun at Matapihi, near Tauranga, under apparently favourable auspices. The attendance, however, is decreasing, and it seems that the Department's