I

1901. NEW- ZEALAND.

Presented to both Houses of the General Assembly by Command of His Excellency.

Office of the Department of Education, My Loed, — Wellington, 22nd August, 1901. I have the honour, in accordance with the provisions of "The Education Act, 1877," to submit to your Excellency the following report upon the progress and condition of public education in New Zealand during the year ending the 31st day of December, 1900. I have, &c, W. C. WALKER. His Excellency the Right Hon. the Earl of Ranfurly, Governor of New Zealand.

In this report and its proper Appendix, in the Inspector-General's Report (E.-1a) on the certificate examinations, the Reports of the Inspectors of Schools (E.-1b), and in the Report of Proceedings of the Conference of Inspectors of Schools (E.-lc), is contained all the information that is of public interest with respect to the administration of " The Education Act, 1877," and " The Education Reserves Act, 1877," and also all the principal statistics relating to matters which are more fully treated of in separate papers, as follows: E.-2, Native Schools; E.-3, Industrial Schools; E.-3a, Costley Training Institution; E.-4, School for Deaf-mutes; E.-5, Manual and. Technical Instruction; E.-6, New Zealand University; E.-7, University of Otago ; E.-8, Canterbury College; E.-9, Auckland University College; E.-10, Victoria College; E.-11, Canterbury Agricultural College; E.-12, Secondary Schools; E.-13, Public Libraries. Report of the Commission appointed to inquire into the subject of a Colonial Scale of Staff and Salaries of Public School Teachers is numbered E.-14. Pupils in Public Schools. There have been since 1893 two methods of calculating the average attendance at any given school. To find the one, called the " strict average," account has been taken of all the half-days on which the school has been open ; the other, the "working average," has been found by omitting from the calculation all those half-days on which less than half the number on the roll are present. For the last eight years the capitation grants have been paid to Education Boards on the working average, the Order in Council authorising such payment having been renewed from time to time. It has now been finally decided to i—E. 1.

EDUCATION: TWENTY-FOURTH ANNUAL REPORT OF THE MINISTER OF EDUCATION. [In continuation of E.-l, 1900.]