E.—2

1901. NEW ZEALAND.

EDUCATION: NATIVE SCHOOLS. [In continuation of E.-2, 1900.]

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

No. 1. EXTRACT FROM TWENTY-FOURTH ANNUAL REPORT OF THE MINISTER OF EDUCATION. The number of Maori village schools in operation at the end of 1900 was eightynine, one more than the number open in December, 1899. The number of children on the rolls of these schools as on the 31st December, 1900, was 3,109, or forty-four more than at the end of the previous year. The average weekly roll-number for 1900 was almost identical with that for 1899, the excess for the former year being less than two. Eegularity of attendance declined from 77-95 per cent, in 1899 to 76 - 8 per cent, in 1900. In 1898 it was 79 - 5 per cent. The number of predominantly Maori children attending Maori village schools, as at the end of 1900, was 2,482, compared with 2,451 for 1899. The corresponding numbers for half-castes and children predominantly European were, for 1900, 280 and 347 respectively; for 1899 the numbers were 302 and 312 respectively. The principal change, then, in the matter of race is that the ratio of half-castes to Maoris has sensibly diminished, as has that of half-castes to Europeans. Of the new schools opened, two seem likely to be very successful. One of these is at Touwai, a few miles from Whangaroa, and the other is at Tapuaeharuru, at the head of Lake Kotoiti. Touwai provides school accommodation for an interesting settlement in the middle of a considerable gum district; Tapuaeharuru depends on the population scattered round those portions of Lake Rotoiti that are somewhat remote from Lake Rotorua. The other schools opened in 1900 are at Okoha, Pelorus Sound, an assisted school; at Paparore, near the Awanui, Mangonui, an experimental school; and at Tapuwae, near Motukaraka, Hokianga, a half-time school. At the beginning of the current year two schools were opened, from which good results are expected, viz., at Te Haroto, on the Napier-Taupo Road, and at Oromahoe, near Pakaraka, Bay of Islands. Four schools have been closed: the Kokako school, near Waikaremoana, mainly through the rigorous climate, which makes it hard for Natives to secure sustenance for children living in that neighbourhood ; the Taiharuru school, through want of appreciation of their school by the Maoris; the Huria school, because the promises of the Maoris to maintain an attendance had not been kept. The Whakarapa school was closed temporarily, because the difficulties of the district had caused the Maoris to ask for a temporary cessation of their task of maintaining an attendance.

I—E. 2.