E.—9a,

4

attend the studio for drawing and painting without taking any part in the other work of the school, and that in the Lower Sixth Form one attends only for English and French, and two for English only In the Upper Sixth three are exempted from the study of botany, and one from trigonometry In the Lower Sixth there are twenty-two pupils, besides the three already referred to. Nine of these are exempted from trigonometry, seven from botany, three from chemistry, and two from Euclid. Some take the full course, and some claim exemption in more than one subject, the extreme case being that of one who rejects four subjects—trigonometry, Euclid, chemistry, and botany In the Fifth Form, which consists of forty-eight pupils, there are seventeen who do not take the full course. In the Fourth Form, consisting of forty-six pupils, the number claiming some exemption is four. The pupils in the Upper Sixth are eleven in number, and they all learn Latin, constituting Latin Class A. There are twenty-two in the Lower Sixth , seventeen of them learn Latin, and fifteen of these, with one girl from the Fifth Form, who, for the sake of Latin, sacrifices a little English and a little mathematics, constitute Latin Class B. Two Sixth Form girls and one Fourth Form girl, with twenty-one girls out of the forty-eight that belong to the Fifth Form, make up Latin Class C. Latin Class Dis composed of nine girls from the Fifth Form, and thirteen from the Fourth Form, which form contains forty-six pupils. This Latin Class D consists of beginners, and devotes only two hours a week to the subject, whereas five hours are given to it in Classes A and B, and four hours in Class C. The presence of so many Fifth Form girls in Latin Class D is due to the fact that many girls who at earlier stages do not accept instruction in Latin develop a desire to learn it when they reach the Fifth Form. As is the case with Latin, the French language is taught in classes made up for the purpose, with no strict regard to the forms to which the girls belong. Most of the pupils, with the exception of those in the First and Second Forms, are in one or other of the French classes (A, B, C, D, E), and the number in all these counted together is 140. The number of pupils entered as belonging to the several forms is 173, distributed as follows: VI., 33, V., 48, IV., 46, 111., 19, 11., 20, 1., 7 There are about sixty who have not attended public schools. There are seventy who have passed the Sixth Standard at public schools, besides twenty-one who have passed the Fifth, and fifteen wdio have passed the Fourth. Those who come up from the primary schools take their place in the High School on an examination in English and arithmetic. The best generally go into the Fifth Form—very rarely into the Sixth, Fourth Standard pupils are usually placed in the Second Form but the largest proportion of pupils that enter from the primary schools are put at first into the Fourth Form. The organization of the school, with its five French classes all taught at the same hour, and its separate Latin classes, renders it possible to recognise by suitable classification any attainments a new pupil has already made in French or Latin, or both, and affords facility for quick promotion in the case of any who, by reason of special ability, or of advantages due to age and corresponding fitness for diligent study, may make more than average progress. The difficult problem of adapting the time-table to the necessities of new-comers arriving at different stages of progress, and differing widely with respect to the proportions in which the several subjects of elementary knowdedge have been combined in the preparatory instruction they have received, has evidently been very carefully studied, with the result of a very near approach to complete success. I have, &c, Wm. Jas. Habens. The Chairman Board of Governors, Otago High School. Approximate Cost of Paper.— Preparation, not given; printing (1,500 copies), £2 13s.

Authority Samuel Gostall, Government Printer, Wellington.—lB94.

Price 3d._