E.—2.

face to face with the difficulty, and so fall into error, waste time, and form wrong impressions, that have to be, with great labour, corrected. Generally it is better to prevent mistakes than to correct them when made. On the other hand, if a mistake has been made, a mere correction of it should not be held to be sufficient. It should be ascertained that the child can go over the same ground without mistake; then, and not till then, the particular piece of work is done. Kaiapoi (examined 23rd October, 1902). —The garden and grounds here are in good order. The drawing is pretty fair, but there is still some want of accuracy. Singing and drill are good. The time-table had not been adjusted to altered requirements. The general results were not great, but they were won in the face of great difficulty—through absence of scholars, dissensions among the people of the kaainga, illness of Mrs. Cossgrove, and absence of Captain Cossgrove in South Africa. These circumstances were quite sufficient to render the doing of first-rate work impossible. It is greatly to the credit of the Misses Cossgrove that they should have succeeded in maintaining good discipline in spite of many discouragements and annoyances. Had they failed altogether in the face of such difficulty it would not have been a thing to wonder at. Bapaki (examined 24th October, 1902). —The garden is very neat, and the grounds are in satisfactory order. The discipline is good. In drawing, the work still suffers through lack of exact treatment. The master was not well at inspection time, and he was therefore not asked to do inspection work. There is some reason to be despondent about the future of this school, seeing that there are but few young children to take the place of those about to leave. Small though the school is, its appearance at inspection was decidedly good, as were the results of the examination. Arowhenua (examined 21st October, 1902). —Garden and grounds are attractive. The pupils work honestly and heartily; a good tone seems to prevail. The "extras" are fairly good. Careful thought and hard work are put into all lessons, and development is sure to take place. The principal difficulties to be overcome are —(1) There is need for profound belief in the doctrine that it is better to prevent mistakes than to correct them ; (2) there is equal need for treating any given mistake as something that must never occur again ; and (3) the teacher must satisfy himself before giving the matter up that his precautions taken with this view are adequate. The results generally were satisfactory, but much improvement in arithmetic is necessary. Wairewa, Little Biver (examined 30th October, 1902). —This school has recovered almost completely from the condition into which it had fallen some two or three years ago ; it is now doing very good work, although there is still something to be gained in style and in discipline. The master has been making rapid advance in practical appreciation of Maori-school aims and methods. He makes his teaching clear, concrete, and interesting. The examination results are good. There is, however, room for more exactness in the work of the children. The following were the defects noticed in the course of that work : The writing is fair, but there is still room for improvement; there should be much closer imitation of the models; figures are not always clear and sharp. In pronunciation the final g needs much attention. Waikouaiti (examined 7th October, 1902). —There is little need for any kind of punishment here; the order is thoroughly good. The garden is in excellent taste, and the whole form of the place is very satisfactory. The time-table shows with great exactness what is to be done and what is done. Satisfactory advance has been made with carton and other hand-work. The teaching is clear and good; the attention of the pupils is gained at the beginning and maintained till the end of a lesson. Some further care is required to prevent all the answering from being the work of the cleverest children only. This is a really good school, one of the very best as a civilising agency; it is also generally satisfactory from the point of view of attainments. Among much excellent work there are some weak places in two subjects at the least—geography and arithmetic. The Neck, Stewart Island (examined Saturday, 11th October, 1902). —The attendance at this school has fallen off greatly. It is doubtful whether it will ever again be possible to bring it quite back to its former prosperous state. The re-opening at Buapuke has to some extent weakened the next school; but in the circumstances a second school could hardly have been done without. The master's teaching is clear, and he secures the attention of his scholars, but he still finds difficulty about making sure that every child has mastered all that has been done in the course of the lesson. The number of passes is satisfactory; but there is one unsatisfactory feature—no child has passed without one recorded weakness. Buapuke (examined 10th October, 1902). —This remote school is in some respects very interesting, and it is certainly justifying its existence. The master evidently does hard work, and the teaching is effective. Considering that only seven months' work had been done since the previous examination, the Inspector was able to pronounce the results good. A beginning has been made with elementary hand-work. Only an elementary stage has been reached as yet in the extrasubject work, except in the drawing, in which considerable progress has been made. A curious fault is noticed here —the last syllable of a word is often dropped, especially when it is ing. Marks gained at the Native Village Schools. The results of inspection, given in Table No. 7, place three schools in the front line, with gross percentage over 90, viz. : Pamoana, Wanganui Biver, under Mr. C. W. Grace ; Waimana, Tuhoe Country, under Mr. C. H. Brown; and Te Araroa, East Coast, under Mrs. Beattie. The schools at the following places gained more than 80 per cent, and less than 90: Tokaanu, Tokomaru Bay, Banana, Pukepoto, Karioi, Waikouaiti, Whakarara. The schools at the places whose names follow gained more than 70 per cent, and less than 80 : Touwai, Tuparoa, Waiotapu, Wharekahika, Te Teko, Whangaruru, Karetu, Baorao, Papawai, Paparore, Te Kaha, Wai-o-weka, Bangitukia, Pariroa, Buatoki, Omaio, Arowhenua, Te Kuiti, Tikitiki, Omanaia, Buapuke, Whirinaki, Waiomatatini, Ahipara. Fifty schools made more than 50 per cent, and less than 70 per cent. Only four schools made less than 50 per cent., and two of these were only partly examined. Besides

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