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XXI

and will proceed in like manner to erect the cottages, on the twenty sections into which the land has been divided, as occupants are ready for them. The Government has undertaken to find the timber and other material for the cottages, which will be occupied by Maori couples, one or both of whom have been pupils in a Native school. It is proposed that the tenants should conform to a few simple rules, the object being to lead them to acquire the art of living in European fashion. One of the most important features of the scheme is to give them such industrial training as may enable them to maintain themselves at a reasonable standard of comfort, and render the settlement self-supporting. Of the 107 schools specially established for Maori education, four are board-ing-schools : at Te Aute College, Hawke's Bay; St. Stephen's, Parnell, Auckland; St. Joseph's Convent, Napier; and Hukarere, Napier, a Protestant girls' school. These are made use of as boarding-schools for children who have distinguished themselves at the Native village schools. Four other schools belong to religious bodies; the managers of these schools have applied to the Department to examine and inspect them. The staff of the village schools included 76 masters, 20 headmistresses, 84 assistants, and 11 sewing-teachers. The masters received salaries ranging from £271 2s. 6d. to £93 13s. 4d. ; headmistresses, from £192 2s. sd. to £55 10s.; assistants, from £50 to £7 18s. 3d. ; sewing-teachers, from £18 15s. The reason why some of the assistants receive very low salaries is that they are in every case members of a teacher's family, who find it worth their while to give assistance in school for limited portions of the week. Particulars concerning average attendance, race of pupils, success of individual schools, &c, are, as usual, given in Mr. Pope's report. It is not necessary to write at length with reference to these statistics. It will be sufficient to call attention to a few features of greater or less importance and interest. Bound numbers being taken, the expenditure for the year was £26,946, including £5,594 expended on new buildings, with fencing, furniture, &c, £102 paid out of funds arising from Native reserves, and £46 from other funds for Native purposes. Deducting the amount of the last three items (£5,742), the ordinary expenditure for general purposes was £21,204. The corresponding expenditure for the previous year was £18,925. The increase, therefore, is £2,279. These two amounts —£21,204 and £18,925 —for the years 1902 and 1901, however, do not correctly represent the actual cost of Native village-school education, seeing that they involve numerous items of expenditure that are the results of successful village - school education, and external adjuncts to it, rather than part of the cost of it. Such are expenditure on boarding-school fees and apprenticeship charges, travelling expenses of scholars to boarding-schools, scholarships to universities, nursing scholarships at hospitals, technical instruction, and buildings connected with it ; also charges in connection with the Canterbury Exbibition : on the whole, very nearly £2,900. However, the numbers £21,204 and £18,925 best serve the purpose of a cost per head as based on the average attendance, if it is remembered that the cost per head so arrived at is about 14 per cent, too high. The average attendance for the year 1901 was 2,592-25. For 1902 it was 3,005. What may be called the gross cost per head, then, is about £7 - 3 for 1901 and about £7 for 1902. The true cost per head for 1902 would be about £6 os. sd. For 1901 it would be not very far from £6 ss. The cost per head in 1902 is therefore some 4s. 6d. less than it was in the previous year. Perfect exactness is not obtainable in this calculation, seeing that the items of expenditure in the two years are only analogous, not identical in character. One of the most interesting items in the Inspector's report is the statement of the fact that in the year 1880 the race of the children attending Native schools could be represented by the following percentages : Maoris, 76 - 46 ; half-castes, 9-61 ; Europeans, 13-93. For 1902 the corresponding figures are: Maoris, 8P32 ; half-castes, 898; Europeans, 9-7. These figures, of course, indicate that Native school work is becoming more specialised than it was; that, in fact, the work of educating the Maoris is being grappled with more strenuously as time goes on.