E.—l

XIV

With respect to the Government schools, the average number boarded out was 399, and the cost per head (not reckoning the time spent by the managers and the Visiting Officer in attending to their cases) was (£6,537 -r- 399) about £16 7s. Bd. The whole number maintained by the Government schools was on the average 634; and if these cases are charged with the whole expenditure, the cost is (£14,018-7-634) about £22 2s. 2d. per head. If, however, the whole number of cases under control (an average of 1,100) is taken into account, the gross expenditure is about ,£l2 15s. per head, and the net expenditure about £6 10s.

Table X. —Government Expenditure on Private Schools, 1895.

The receipts of the private schools do not include payments made to them by Charitable Aid Boards for maintenance of inmates in cases of indigence. The average number of inmates belonging to these schools during the year was 450 (362 resident, 9 boarded out, 79 at service, &c). School for Deaf-mutes. There were 46 pupils in the institution at Sumner at the end of 1894, and the same number at the end of 1895, seven having left and seven entered in the interval. The expenditure in 1895 was £3,025 lis. 3d., and the receipts were £180 4s. Bd. The expenditure is made up of the following items : Professional staff and occasional tuition, £1,117 Os. 4d.; salaries of steward, matron, and wages, £472 12s. Is.; rent, £470; housekeeping, £669 10s. 7d.; travelling, £100 6s. 5d.; school material, £11 9s. lOd.; repairs, £50 9s. 9d.; clothing (for some needy cases), £16 13s. 9d.; medicine, £13 19s. 4d.; drainage and removal of refuse, £36 14s. ; sundries, £66 15s. 2d. The instruction is on the pure oral or articulation method—that is to say, the teachers teach by word of mouth, and the children are not taught to use arbitrary signs, but actually acquire the power of audible speech. Jubilee Institute for the Blind. The Department paid to the Trustees of the Jubilee Institute, Auckland, £560 17s. 2d., in 1895, for the maintenance of a number of inmates, varying from 23 to 21; besides paying £15 for an annual railway-ticket for an agent of the Institute, and £3 3s. for a special examination of the ears and eyes of one inmate. Eepayments to the extent of £51 4s. were received from parents. Technical Instruction. The expenditure of the Department for the encouragement of technical instruction in science and art in 1895 was £948 19s. Bd., as follows : Technical Classes Association, Auckland and Dunedin, £100 and £250 respectively ; Education Boards of Wellington and Wanganui, £200 each ; School of Domestic Instruction, Christehurch, £150; Milton District High School, £7 14s. sd. ; expenses of examination of South Kensington, £20 12s. 9d.; and of City and Guilds of London, £20 12s. 6d. The following table shows the number of New Zealand candidates examined and passed in 1895 by the Science and Art Department, South Kensington, and by the City and Guilds of London Institute. The candidates were from the technical schools of Wellington and Wanganui, and the Dunedin School of Art. but among the Wellington candidates are included some students of institutionsat Masterton, Pahiatua, and Westport, affiliated to the Wellington Technical School.

School. Payments. Recoveries. Net Expenditure by Government. St. Mary's, Ponsonby (Auckland) St. Joseph's, Wellington St. Mary's, Nelson £ s. d. 485 3 0 372 3 0 2,211 17 6 £ s. d. 18 13 0 78 9 6 323 5 4 £ s. d. 466 10 0 293 13 6 1,888 12 2 Totals ' ••| 3,069 3 6 420 7 10 2,648 15 8