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by the Boards. These schools were under the charge of sixty-one masters and fifteen mistresses, with salaries ranging from £74 to £233; and there were sixty assistants and fourteen sewingmistresses, with salaries between £2 and £50. The number of children on the rolls was 2,864, being 1,569 boys and 1,295 girls. Many of the children are of mixed parentage, the Maori blood being pure or preponderant in about 79 per cent, of them, and European blood predominating in about 10 per cent. The remaining 11 per cent, are half-castes. The course of studies at the Native schools differs to some extent from the public-school course, and the standards of examination are somewhat lower in certain subjects, in view of the fact that the Maori pupil has to acquire the English language in addition to his own, and that all the instruction is given in what is to him a foreign tongue. Maoris are admitted into the village schools below the age of five, and are allowed to remain in them after the age of fifteen. Besides the Government schools there are eight denominational schools, subject to inspection by the Education Department, of which four are dayschools and four are boarding-schools. At one of the latter there is a class for Maori boys preparing for matriculation at the University. At the end of 1897 there were 121 boys and 115 girls of Maori or mixed race at the- boarding-schools, of whom twenty-six boys and sixteen girls were holders of Government scholarships. The Education Department provides exhibitions for young Maoris that show ability to study with profit at secondary schools and university colleges. Other promising young Maoris are apprenticed to trades at the expense of the Department. There were ten such apprentices in December, 1897, and two young men holding Government exhibitions of £40 a year each at university colleges. The total Government expenditure on Maori schools in 1897 was £20,743. [A copy of the Native Schools Code is attached.] There are twenty-four corporate endowed secondary schools subject to inspection by the Education Department. Eight of them are for boys, seven for girls, and nine for both boys and girls. The fees for tuition range from £4, or even less, to a little over £14 a year. There is a total staff of 143 resident and forty-one visiting teachers, and the aggregate roll-number at the end of 1897 was 1,686 boys and 1,023 girls. The year's income from, endowments amounted to £26,765, and the fees for tuition to £23,770. The expenditure on scholarships and prizes by the governing bodies of the schools in 1897 amounted to £2,842. The salaries of the teachers amounted to £31,596, and the cost of examinations to £544. Education Board scholarships were held at the secondary schools during the year by 199 boys and 120 girls from the public primary schools. The values of these scholarships ranged from £4 to £52 125., and their net total amount was £7,769. The number of private and denominational schools at the end of 1897 may be estimated at about three hundred, with about 6,500 boys and 9,100 girls. These schools cannot be classified as primary and secondary, as most of them partake of both characters. About 65 per cent, of the children attending private schools are at about 35 per cent, of the schools, which are those connected with the Roman Catholic Church. " The Education Act, 1877," allows any headmaster, with the approval of his Committee, to open evening classes for pupils over thirteen, and to charge fees; but hitherto very little advantage has been taken of this provision. A Bill to provide for the establishment of continuation schools and classes by the Education Boards was introduced at the last session of Parliament in 1897, but did not become law. Under the Act passed in 1895 any Education Board may order elementary manual training to be included in the ordinary course of instruction at any public school in its district. Under the same Act a Board may authorise the holding of classes for manual training in any of its schools out of school-hours ; and a Board or other society, or any qualified person, may establish classes for technical instruction not in connection with the primary schools. Fees may be charged for admission to such classes, and the promoters may claim from the Government certain capitations on the attendance. Classes for technical instruction, including art and shorthand classes and classes for cookery and needlework, have been established at various centres by the Boards and by other promoters. Examinations have been held in connection with the Science and Art Department, South Kensington, and with the City and Guilds of London Institute ; and at these examinations 1,037 papers were taken and 751 passes were obtained in 1897. The payments made by the Education Department on account of technical classes and examinations for the year amounted to £2,932. Three schools of mines, chiefly for the benefit of working miners, are maintained by the Government Department of Mines on three of the principal goldfields of the colony. The public expenditure on these schools of mines for 1897 amounted to £1,501. There is no special institution in the colony for commercial instruction. Higher technical instruction, on the professional plane, is given at several corporate and endowed institutions : A medical school and a school of mines forming departments of the University of Otago; a school of engineering and technical science forming a department of Canterbury College; and a school of agriculture, formerly governed by Canterbury College, but recently erected into a separate corporation. The University of New Zealand is a chartered corporation, consisting of a Chancellor, a ViceChancellor, fellows, and graduates. Its governing body is the Senate, of twenty-four fellows, including the Chancellor and Vice-Chancellor. The fellowships are tenable for life, on condition of regular attendance at the annual sessions of the Senate. Elections to vacancies in the senate are made alternately by the fellows and by the graduates in convocation. The University is an examining, not a teaching, body, and certain teaching institutions are affiliated to it, viz. : Otago University, Canterbury College, and Auckland University College. A fourth college—Victoria College— is provided for by an Act of 1897, but is not yet ready for actual work. Wellington will almost certainly be the seat of this new college. The University has power to grant the degrees of Bachelor and Master in Arts, and of Bachelor and Doctor in Laws, Medicine, Science, and Music. The examiners for degrees in arts and science are appointed periodically, and are chosen from among