92

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and teaching. No trainee is ever sent to the particular school in which he or she was originally trained. The lessons given in the presence of the headmasters were word-building, reading, arithmetic, grammar, singing, physical exercises, and drill. The reports sent to me on the students' lessons by the headmasters take account of the students' manner, the order, and the attention of the class, and the methods employed in giving the lesson. The reports under each head may range from excellent to inferior. Summarising the total of the marks obtained this year, I find that some fifty bear the mark excellent, 126 very good, seventy-three good, twenty-one satisfactory, and seven moderate or inferior. The students are, I believe, always willing and ready to give their lessons, and equally anxious to secure a good report. Judging by the general tone of the reports, I believe they succeeded in carrying out their lessons with praiseworthy interest and enthusiasm. My thanks are due to the headmasters for their assistance in giving our pupilteachers a valuable training in work that can only be obtained by means of a system of associated schools. The second years students' course of practical work is not so continuous and effective as I should like to see it. I believe a better plan than the present would be to let them take the place of the Normal School pupil-teachers. In this way they would have a better opportunity of becoming stronger in discipline by having the control of classes for some considerable time. This would be a means of reducing the number of pupil-teachers, and would at the same time give a better training to those admitted to the College by the entrance examination. The work of the Model School proves both interesting and instructive to the students. I have been studying the work of the small schools very closely for the last five years, and every year I see more clearly the difficulty there is in modifying the methods of teaching adopted in large classes to the exigencies of a small school with its numerous small classes. I have been making a strenuous effort to overcome some of these difficulties, but much still remains to be done for our small schools, both in the range and number of the subjects of instruction, as well as in the training of our students in the best methods of teaching, before they can be said to reach a very high standard of efficiency. From time to time I have communicated with teachers in the country with respect to the organization of small schools, and with regard to the teaching of particular subjects, and by this means I have obtained information which, together with our own experiments, has enabled us year by year to do better work in our Model School. Twenty-one students presented themselves at the annual examination held by the Education Department. The examination was held in Dunedin in January of last year. Of the twenty-one students, thirteen secured a full D certificate, six a partial D, and two a partial E certificate. Only five students attended University classes this year—two first-year students and three secondyear. Miss Cunningham obtained first-class in senior English, Miss Hancock and Mr. W. H. Johnston kept terms in Latin and mathematics, Miss Ehoda Barr passed the first section of the B.A. degree, and Mr. John A. Hay passed the B.A. degree and obtained the Tinline scholarship of the New Zealand University for proficiency in English. The Board's Training College certificate implies a higher degree of technical skill than that issued by the central Education Department, especially in drawing, musical study, method, and singing, gymnastics, and physical drill. Only four students of 1899 succeeded in obtaining the Board's certificate. I hope for a much larger number each succeeding year. On the face of it, those who are holders of this certificate may be taken to be all round the best trained and most capable of our pupil-teachers, and I should like to see this fact recognised by the Board in making selections for appointments. D. E. White, M.A., Principal.

SOUTHLAND. Sib, — Education Office, Invercargill, 15th March, 1901. I have the honour to present the following report of the proceedings of the Southland Board of Education for the year ended 31st December, 1900 : — The Boaed. —At the beginning of the year the Board consisted of the following members : Mr. William Macalister, 8.A., LL.B. (Chairman), and Messrs. Alfred Baldy, John Cowie, George E. George, J. A. Hanan, M.H.E., D. L. Matheson, Thomas Mac Gibbon, George McLeod, M.A., and J. W. Eaymond. The retiring members were Messrs. Cowie, Macalister, and Matheson. The two first-mentioned gentlemen offered themselves for re-election, but Mr. Matheson intimated his intention to retire permanently from his position as a member of the Board. The election, as required by the Act, was held in the month of March. School Committees nominated six gentlemen to fill the vacancies, and the voting resulted in the re-election of Messrs. John Cowie and William Macalister, and the election of Mr. J. C. Thomson, of Eiverton. In connection with Mr. Matheson's retirement, the Board unanimously adopted the following resolution : " Mr. D. L. Matheson having decided, after sixteen years' service, to retire from his position as a member of the Southland Education Board, the members desire to express and record their appreciation of the faithful and valued services which he has so long rendered to the Education District of Southland, their regret that his sound advice and kindly manner will be lost to them, and their hope that he may be long spared to continue to take an interest from an outside standpoint in the cause of education generally." At its meeting held on the 6th April the Board elected Mr. John Cowie to the position of its Chairman for the ensuing year. The Venerable Archdeacon Stocker (re-elected) and the Rev. J. Gibson Smith were appointed to represent the Board on the Southland High Schools Board of Governors; while Mr. Thomas Mac Gibbon (elected in 1899) continued his services as a member of the School Commissioners for the Provincial District of Otago. The Board continues to hold its ordinary meeting on the first Friday of each