E.—l

TABLE X. —Government Expenditure on Private Schools, 1897.

School fob Deaf-mutes. The well-known school at Sumner, where even congenital deaf-mutes are taught actually to speak and to understand the vocal speech of others, continues its beneficent operations with little variation and with few incidents fitted to give rise to any comment. Three boys and 5 girls left at the end of 1896 and 4 boys and 3 girls were admitted in 1897. The attendance at the end of the year was 27 boys and 20 girls. The director in his work of instruction has the assistance of 5 teachers; the household arrangements are supervised by a steward and matron. The expenditure for the year was £3,277 Bs. 3d., made up of the following items : —Salaries of director and teachers, £1,349 6s. 7d. ; steward, matron, and servants, £478 55.; rent, £470 ; housekeeping, £684 7s. lOd.; travelling-expenses, £124 17s. 6d.; school material, £15 7s. 2d.; repairs and works, £47 17s. 4d.; clothing, £22 7s. lid. ; medical attendance and medicine, £12 ss. lid. ; water-supply, £11 9s. Bd. ; sanitary precautions, £16 6s. Bd. The amount contributed by parents is £155 Bs. Further details are given in a separate paper, E.-4. Institute fob the Blind. The Jubilee Institute for the Blind receives some pupils for whose tuition the Education Department is responsible. The number of such pupils declined in the year 1897 from 19 to 14. The payments made by the department on their behalf to the Institute amounted to £461 9s. 2d., towards which a sum of £40 9s. lid. was contributed by parents. The department also pays £30 ss. a year for a railway-ticket for the use of an agent of the Institute. No account is given here of grants made to the Institute by the department in charge of hospitals and charitable aid. Manual Teaining and Technical Instbuction. The annual reports of the several Education Boards afford no reason to believe that any great activity is being manifested in the development of that kind of elementary manual training which, under the operation of the Act of 1895, is now recognised as being part of the proper educative work of the primary schools, and which, while including kindergarten occupations and " sloyd," is capable of wide development in cardboard-work, and in the construction of models in wood and metal as illustrations of many subjects of scientific instruction. Development in this direction does not necessarily come under the notice of the department, as it lies within the province of the Education Boards. With respect to another form of manual instruction, a form in which it constitutes, through the handling of tools and materials, a more direct preparation for manual trades, the Act of 1895 contemplates a measure of co-operation between the department and the Boards, since any serious treatment of the subject from this point of view seems to require a workshop and some expenditure on tools, and to have its proper place outside of the time properly devoted to such mental development and equipment as is generally comprehended under the word " schooling." It has been deemed a great gain to have secured in our time this " schooling " for the children of all classes, and it ought not to be proposed now to encroach upon its hours in the interests of that kind of serious preparation for a trade or a business which naturally begins when school-days are over. For manual instruction out of school-hours the Boards receive subsidy at the same rate as for any classes they may institute

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School. Payments. Becoveries. Net Expenditure by Government. It. Mary's, Ponsonby (Auckland) It. Joseph's, Wellington It. Mary's, Nelson Totals £ s. a. 548 2 0 495 1 9 2,333 11 8 3,376 15 5 £ a. d. 24 5 4 55 13 0 353 2 8 £ a. a. 523 16 8 439 8 9 1,980 9 0 3,376 15 5 433 1 0 2,943 U 5