E.—2

1898. NEW ZEALAND.

EDUCATION: NATIVE SCHOOLS. [In continuation of E.-2, 1897.]

Presented to both Houses of the General Assembly by Command of His Excellency. No. 1. EXTBACT FBOM TWENTY-FIBST ANNUAL BEPOBT OF THE MINISTEB OF EDUCATION. Native Schools. The number of Native village schools was the same (74) at the end of the year as at the beginning. The number of children on the roll at the end of 1897 was 2,864, greater by only 2 than the corresponding number for the previous year. The mean of the weekly returns of pupils on the roll was 2,955, greater by 81 than at the end of the preceding year; and the strict average attendance was 2,291, showing an increase of 71 in the year. The average daily attendance for the year was equal to 77| per cent, of the roll-number for the time being. Four schools were finally closed in 1897, and one was transferred to the care of an Education Board; four new schools were opened, and one school was reopened after having been closed for some years. The closing of the school at Maketu is to be attributed to the apathy of the people, and of that at Eangiahua to decline of Native population. In the case of Waitapu both causes were operative, and at Mangakahia, though the population is a scattered one, the school might have been maintained if the people had shown a proper interest in it. The school at Colac Bay, transferred to the Southland Education Board, had for years contained a preponderating number of European pupils and the Maori people had long lived in European fashion. The old school that has been reopened is at Pamapuria, Mangonui. The four new schools are at Utakura, Hokianga; Manaia, in the Coromandel Peninsula; Eaorao, on the shores of the Aotea Harbour ; and Kokako, near Waikaremoana and on the Wairoa Eoad. The aggregate attendance at these five schools for the first quarter of 1898 is 137. Since the beginning of this year new schools have been opened at the following places: Whakarara, near Whangaroa; Opureora, near Tauranga; Te Kuiti, on the main line of railway from Auckland; Karioi, between Taupo and Wanganui; and Koriniti, on the Wanganui Eiver. A subsidy, at the capitation rate of .£3 155., has been granted to a movement instituted in Nelson for the establishment of a small school at Croiselles Harbour. A new school is at present in process of erection at Nuhaka, near the Mahia Peninsula ; an old school at Peria, Mangonui, is to be reopened, and probably the old school at Otamatea, Kaipara, will also be reopened. There are many applications for new schools, and it is most likely that on further inquiry eight or nine of these applications will be found to be well grounded.

I—E. 2.