8.—4

1894. NEW ZEALAND.

EDUCATION: INSTITUTION FOR DEAF-MUTES. [In Continuation of E.-4, 1893.]

Presented to both Houses of the General Assembly by command of His Excellency.

No. 1. Extract feom Seventeenth Annual Repobt op the Ministee of Education The number of pupils at Sumner school is still on the decline, having fallen during the year from 46 to 39 The expenditure for the year was ,£3,223 ss. 2d., made up as follows Salaries of professional staff, .£l,OOB 7s. 2d., salaries, and wages of domestic staff, £449 Is. 9d., rent, £470, housekeeping, £840 10s. lid.; travelling, £172 16s. lid., expenses in connection with Commission and Parliamentary Committee, £10 6s. 2d., school material and appliances for technical instruction, £61 os. 7d. , repairs, drainage, &c, £124 os. Bd., sundries, £87 Is. Contributions received from parents amount to £211 6s. 3d. The net cost has been £3,011 18s. lid.

No. 2. Ebpobt of the Dieectoe. Sic, — Institution for Deaf-mutes, Sumner, Bth May, 1894. I have the honour to report that, since the Ist January, 1893, owing to the Director's formal request of the 27th September, 1892, tp be relieved of the boarding of the inmates, and to the Hon. the Minister of Education's desire to so relieve him, a considerable change has taken place in the internal management of the institution—at least, so far as the boarding of the inmates and the caretaking of the pupils when out of school are concerned. The plan adopted at the opening of the institution in 1880 —viz., that the Director should carry on the institution while in its infancy on the principle of a private home, as well as of a Government boarding-school—had worked remarkably well. It had served its purpose in particular by meeting New Zealand's special requirements. But, on the total of inmates reaching the number of fifty, on several separate buildings being required to carry on the business of the institution, and on the management becoming more complicated, through the boarding and lodging of the assistant teachers being undertaken as well as that of the pupils, a period arrived during which peculiar impediments to the smooth working of the establishment were experienced, and in connection with which the question arose, whether the old conditions of carrying on the affairs of the institution on the desirable lines of a large family establishment had not ceased to exist. Defects inherent to every large congregation of deaf children, and growing greater as the numbers of an institution increase, are still apparent, and more plainly now than ever They are faults and shortcomings characteristic of the misfortune of deafness. They are imperfections growing with age, and appearing, like natural weeds, side by side with knowledge and power With a practised eye you may detect such imperfections in a deaf-mute's gait, in his play, in his handling a toy or an implement, in short, in his every action. Let him be associated with a number of others similarly afflicted, and his peculiarities will be multiplied and intensified.