11

E.—2

Tikitiki (examined 16th May, 1900). —Here also the order is very good. The children will sit quiet as long as one wishes. The rule is firm, but by no means austere. Parents take deep interest in their school. Steps have been taken by the Committee of Tikitiki and the masters of Tikitiki and Rangitukia to prevent in amicable fashion the wandering of pupils from school to school. The externals of Tikitiki School are now very pleasing. The inspection and examination numbers show a real advance all along the line, and very high results may be expected here next year. Meanwhile this year's work is quite satisfactory. [As this is going to press, news of the death of Mr. Bone, the master of the Tikitiki School, a very valuable public servant, has come to hand.] Wai-o-matatini (examined 15th May, 1900). —The Master's teaching is characterized by great clearness and suitability for assimilation by his pupils. The general results of the work were far from bad; and, it should be remembered that during the previous school-year work had been suspended for five months, while the buildings were being removed to a more healthy position ; also there had been a change of masters, Mr. Kirkman, the former teacher, having left for the Transvaal in December, 1899. Our death-roll was a very long one last year. Mr. Kirkman, who was a zealous and successful teacher, died in South Africa of enteric fever, after a brief but not undistinguished career as a soldier. Many members of our staff were looking forward with pleasant anticipation to Mr. Kirkman's return. Tuparoa (examined 14th May, 1900). —At this school we again have excellent order. The business of tlie school seems to have complete possession of the pupils, and there is really no room for whispering or trifling. The behaviour of the children is frank and polite. It is pleasing to be able to report that the teachers are doing all that lies in their power for the school, and are also seeking new opportunities of assisting Maori boys and girls in their efforts to surmount difficulties depending on heredity and social environment. The results are large and of general good quality, and the teaching has been powerful and effective. Hiruharama (examined 11th May, 1900). —There are peculiar difficulties here. One of the most troublesome is, apparently, the impossibility of getting a servant or a lady-help to suffer banishment to a place so far out of the way as Hiruharama really is. Hence the master and mistress, having a large family, find it necessary to work hard and constantly out of school as well as in it, and to do without rest except during the holidays. Also, it is rather difficult to secure regular attendance, although the " tone "of the place is good; for the weather is rainy and river crossings are numerous. These facts being kept in view, it is safe to say that the results are satisfactory. On the whole the teachers now have a good grasp of the problem that has to be solved here. Tokomaru (examined 10th May, 1900). —This school, too, has its problem waiting for solution. Girls on their return from boarding-school, highly educated relatively, have to hang about the settlement waiting for an opening to lead the life they have learnt to appreciate. No opening comes, but sometimes lamentable disaster. The problem is to find a bridge from the boardingschool to a Pakeha's life in a Maori district. What is wanted is a kind of Maori village settlement on our well-known Pakeha lines, where the village settlers shall be, largely, boarding-school ex-pupils, male and female, with such respectable elder Maoris as may be anxious to try the new way of life, and to do without the tangi and other kinds of hui ; and generally, and above all, to give up indiscrimate hospitality and general communism. It is in some such direction as this that the welfare of the Maori lies. The interval between the examinations of 1899 and 1900 was rather short; also regular attendance did not begin until some time after the conclusion of last year's work. In spite of these drawbacks results were very good indeed. Hawke's Bay, Wanganui, and Wellington. Nuhaka (examined 23rd February, 1900). —Considering the age of this school we must deem its progress satisfactory ; the children are taking pleasing interest in work that is necessarily rather dry. The parents are for the most part seconding the master's efforts. At the time of the examination the school had been opened just about a year. Eighteen passes in all were secured, and the school generally had been brought to an advanced stage of preparation. This was certainly satisfactory. Tokaanu (examined Saturday, 24th March, 1900). —The garden and grounds were in first-class order, and very pretty. A peculiar feature here is a system of pupils' gardens; of these there are many, all worthy imitations of the master's garden, of which they are offshoots. The results, viewed in the light of the circumstances in which they had been produced, were very good indeed. In the course of the previous year the school had suffered much through epidemic sickness, and also from the short supply of food, caused by Maori hospitality in connection with the holding of a Land Court. Karioi (examined 27th March, 1900). —Arithmetic was, on the whole, the weakest subject, but good work had been done in it. The shortness of the time that the school had been opened being considered, the children had made excellent progress. It would be difficult to speak too highly of the tone of this little school. The relations existing between the teacher's family and their Maori clients give no support to the catchword that the Maori knows not gratitude. The teaching here is very thorough and painstaking and full of insight; the order is improving. Pipiriki (examined 28th March, 1900). —The passes gained here were not very numerous, but their average value was high, and this is always a sign that well-directed work has been done. The teachers were toiling away heartily, in spite of some discouragement caused by the wandering life of the people as a whole. The position of this school may now be considered secure. Pipiriki School is, on the whole, a very interesting one; and there are hardly anywhere Maoris for whom a school is so necessary. Pamoana (examined 29th March, 1900).—So far as the three Pamoana settlements—Koriniti, Karatia, and Atene —are concerned the external tone is first-rate ; the school tone leaves nothing