XVII

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Training op Teachers. Out of the vote for the training of teachers £500 was paid, as in the three previous years, for each of the normal schools at Christchurch and Dunedin. An extra £500 was taken for the purpose of enabling work of the same kind to be begun at Auckland and Wellington; but this amount was not expended, as it was thought that the matter required further consideration. The salaries and allowances of the students in training at the Christchurch and Dunedin Normal Schools and at the Napier Training School were met out of the teachers' salaries vote under the second proviso to section 3 of " The Public-school Teachers' Salaries Act, 1901," which allows the Minister until the 31st December, 1903, to sanction modifications in tbe staffing of schools. This arrangement must come to an end at the close of the present year ; so that, unless special provision is made, it will be impossible, not only to establish fresh training-colleges at Auckland and Wellington, but even to continue those that are already in operation. There is no doubt that the training of our teachers is one of the most important questions calling for action at the present time. The reform of the syllabus will have very little practical effect unless those who are to carry it out receive the best training that the colony can afford to give them, and the introduction of manual training, which is in its essence far more a change of the methods of teaching than of the subject-matter of instruction, will fail in its purpose unless the teachers themselves are trained in the principles that underlie these modern ideas. Such training they can receive only at properly equipped training-colleges, to which shall be admitted not merely a small fraction of the future staffs of the schools, but as nearly as possible all individuals who are destined to take part in the management of our schools, primary and secondary alike. As far as manual subjects are concerned, provision has been made to a certain extent for the training of teachers therein by special grants to the Boards for that purpose, by grants of apparatus and material to teachers' classes, and by the concession of free railway passes to teachers attending any trainingclasses approved by the Education Board of their district. The grants so given have no doubt been usefully employed by all or most of the Boards; but it is obvious that instruction of this kind would be more complete and effective if given at a training-college, where it would be given by masters thoroughly acquainted with their subject and with the best methods of dealing with it in the schools, and where the relation of manual instruction to the whole school course could be most fully kept in view. Military and Physical Drill. The Education Act provides that " in public schools provision shall be made for the instruction in military drill of all boys"; and under "The Physical Drill in Public and Native Schools Act, 1901," which came into force on the Ist January, 1902, it is declared to be the duty of the Board in each district " to cause physical drill to be taught to all boys and girls over the age of eight years attending the public schools in the district." The number of children returned as receiving instruction in drill at the end of the year was 100,280. The term " drill" here must be taken to include physical and disciplinary exercises. The report of the Officer Commanding the Public-school Cadets forms an Appendix (E.-1d) to this report. There were on the 30th June, 1903, 182 cadet corps, with a strength of 9,092 members. Some of them had carbines or similar arms obtained from the Defence Department, but generally they were equipped with the " model rifles" (dummies) which have been imported by the Department for purposes of drill, and with a percentage of miniature Martini-Henry rifles for target practice. The number of cadet companies in the several districts was as follows : Axickland, 37; Taranaki, 6; Wanganui, 13 ; Wellington, 29 ; Hawke's Bay, 25 ; Marlborough, 4 ; Nelson, 7 ; Grey, 3; Westland, 3; North Canterbury, 13; South Canterbury, 6; Otago, 30; Southland, 6. The number of models on issue to the Boards at the end of the year was 8,739, and of miniature rifles 674.

iii—E. 1.