E.—4,

2

school authority. The Act provides that the parent of a child shall contribute towards the child's expenses such sum as may be agreed upon between the school authority and the parent. Notwithstanding anything in the Elementary Education Acts, or in the by-laws for the district in which the child is resident, a deaf or blind child must attend school full time until the age of sixteen is reached. Failure to enable blind and deaf children resident in the district of the School Board, for whose elementary education efficient and suitable provision is not otherwise made, to obtain such education constitutes default on the part of the School Board." At the end of 1899 there were 43 children —22 boys and 21 girls—at the institution. Three boys were admitted in 1900 ; 1 pupil, a girl, died during the year; there, were therefore 25 boys and 20 girls—4s in all —in residence in December, 1900. The gross expenditure for maintenance during the year ended 31st December, 1900, was-£3,158 95., as against £3,444 2s. sd. for the previous year. The total was made up as follows : Salaries of Director and teachers, £1,257 9s. lOd.; steward, matron, and servants, £506 Bs. 3d. ; rent, £155 14s. 7d.; housekeeping, £689 10s. 3d. ; travelling-expenses, £203 12s. 4d. ; school material, £3 2s. sd. ; repairs and works, £91 12s. sd. ; clothing, £11 Bs. 9d. ; medical attendance and medicine, £25 Bs. sd. ; water-supply, £38 Bs. ; sanitary precautions, £37 125.; boarding-out of pupils, £24 7s. id. ; sundries, £113 14s. Bd. Less amount contributed by parents, £147 18s. 6d. Net expenditure, £3,010 10s. 6d. (The net expenditure in 1899 was £3,244 7s. 5d.) There was also paid to complete the'purchase of the new site, £2,233 6s. 3d., making the total cost of land and buildings purchased, £4,933 6s. 3d. The plans for new buildings are in hand, and it is hoped that it may be possible shortly to begin the work of erection.

No. 2. Repoet op the Dieectob. Sic, — School for Deaf-mutes, 26th April, 1901. I have the honour to report that the process of teaching our deaf pupils during the year 1900 has in principle differed in no wise from that of former years. The actual work is in many respects only to be compared to the pushing and dragging of a heavy load on an upward grade. A desire to bring the pupils to a somewhat higher level on the hill of common knowledge simply means there is to be no slackening in the grip on the educational machine on the part of the teachers. But determination and continued effort in the right direction work wonders even in a school for deaf-mutes, so that, making due allowance for the peculiar difficulties of the work and the want of long experience on the part of several of the instructors, there is no reason to be otherwise than satisfied with the results of last year's teaching in the class-rooms. The school reopened in February, L9OO, with forty-six pupils —a decrease of four from the previous year. A fatal case of typhoid fever, shortly after the reassembling of the school, further reduced this number by one. With this exception the general health of the inmates remained good, so that marks of absence in the register of attendance were few. Of the forty-five pupils in regular attendance during the year, three started at the very bottom in the articulation class, whilst three were sufficiently advanced and old enough to leave the institution for good at the end of the year. A list of the different homes shows that two of the pupils came from Riverton, one from Pembroke, one from Balclutha, two from Lawrence, one from Gorge Creek, one from Green Island, five from Dunedin, one from Waddington, one from Timaru, one from Temuka, one from Geraidine, one from Methven, two from Halswell, one from Bennett's, two from Lyttelton, two from Christchureh, one from Hokitika, one from Kumara, one from Greymouth, two from Foxhill, two from Masterton, one from Foxton, one from Lower Hutt, one from Martinborough, one from Wellington, one from Wairoa, three from Upper Waiwera, one from Onehunga, one from Matahura, and three from Auckland, thus indicating that the proportion of the South Island scholars to that of the North was as thirty to fifteen. Two young candidates were to have entered as beginners, but they did not put in an appearance. The Director also had the sad experience of having to decline admission to an intelligent grown-up girl of seventeen in consequence of her advanced age. To an expert the position of a parent or relative wilfully neglecting to send an intelligent deaf child to school at a suitable age is not only inexcusable, but altogether inexplicable. Imagine a child deaf, but of sound brain : what does this mean ? Such a child is not speechless only. That is the least part of the affliction. It is intellectually near-sighted, and will gradually grow mentally blind. Its faculties for understanding and learning are firmly held in the clutches of deadly silence and dark solitude, and for that reason its whole intellectual existence must remain in the custody of