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thirty-two, there were present at examination only eighteen. Everything about the school was very clean. The order was sufficiently good, though the school was visited under somewhat unfavourable conditions. The tone has greatly improved; the children take a living interest in their work, and are on excellent terms with their teacher. The Committee seem to take a languid interest in the school. The extra subjects have been fairly well attended to, and may be considered satisfactory. The teaching is spirited, and evidently effective; considerable improvement in this direction is noted. The teacher, who has had a Board-school training, is taking up the difficulties of Maori-school work very satisfactorily. As the result of the examination, the top of the school did much better than the bottom. On the whole, there is reason to be well satisfied with what the mistress had been able to do under rather hard conditions. Matata Convent School (inspected and examined 29th June, 1903: Mr. Pope). —The order was very good. There is also a good tone, and the interest of the parents in the school is maintained. The children were clean and decently dressed. The drill was very good; it consisted of a set of dumb-bell exercises, with musical accompaniment, and was performed with vigour and accuracy. The sister in charge is an experienced teacher, and she has adjusted the school to our requirements, and is largely guided by our principles. Traces of our English-conversation method are now visible everywhere throughout the work, and generally the methods are satisfactory. In the examination results it was found that the higher work was considerably stronger than the lower. The principal difficulty in the way here is that the necessity for much higher thoroughness in the instruction of Maori children than is sufficient in the case of Europeans has not been fully recognised. Waerenga-a-hika Mission School (inspected and examined 22nd May, 1903: Mr. Bird). —With the exception that more time should be devoted to English, composition based upon conversational methods, there was no fault to be found with the time-table arrangements. The order was good, the boys being well in hand, and thoroughly at home with their teachers. The tone leaves nothing to be desired. The singing was marred to some extent by harshness, but the drill was very good, the boys working with energy and precision. The teaching was on the whole satisfactory. The examination results were very good, and the work of the school was very pleasing. Some of it showed a surprising improvement, notably the arithmetic and geography of Standard IV. The slate-work generally was also exceedingly neat, a sure sign of careful teaching. Te Makarini Scholarships. —The Chief Inspector of Native Schools, Mr. J. H. Pope, conducted the Te Makarini Scholarships examination, which was held on the 14th and 15th December, 1903, at nine centres —viz., Te Aute College, Waerenga-a-hika, Hapua, Karioi, Opotiki, Tokaanu, Ahipara, Whareponga, and Nelson. The following is his report: " Seven candidates took the senior scholarship examination and sixteen the junior. There were three other incomplete applications. A new feature this year has been the admission of four candidates from Waerenga-a-hika Boarding-school to the junior examination. It may, perhaps, be desirable that candidates of this kind should in future be treated as senior candidates, seeing that they have coaching advantages beyond the reach of boys attending day-schools. However, the letter of the regulations is at present favourable to such candidates. The following schools were represented at the examination: Hiruharama, Whangarae, Tuparoa, Omarumutu, Te Kao, Tokaanu, Waioweka, Karioi, Pukepoto, ■Waerenga-a-hika, and Te Aute College for senior candidates. The North Island was therefore very widely represented. The scholarships were awarded as follows: The senior scholarship to J. P. Ferris, of Te Aute College, who gained 68 per cent, of the marks. Iria te Rangi Halbert gained 65.2 per cent., and deserves honourable mention. Of the junior scholarships, the one devoted to Native village schools was awarded to Mahauariki te Waru, of Tokaanu, who gained 69.8 per cent.; and the open junior scholarship to Tupara Kingi, of Waerenga-a-hika Boardingschool, his percentage being 61.2. Matina Hiparaiti, of Whangarae, Croiselles, deserves honourable mention, having obtained 58.8 per cent.. There is good reason to be satisfied with the greater part of the work shown at this examination. The neatness of much of it, the increased power of dealing with questions that do not in any way suggest the answers required, the greater facility acquired by the candidates in expressing their thoughts in English —in short, their ability to send in good work in all or in most of the subjects —shows that there has been really an immense advance since the year 1880. The only remark I wish to make is that teachers ought to be asked to test their pupils' knowledge, and so qualify themselves for judging whether such pupils have a fair chance of gaining not less, say, than 40 per cent, of the marks. It is very discouraging for young candidates to have to face papers quite beyond their powers, but it is safe to say that pupils who gain over 40 per cent, at one examination would have a very fair chance of gaining a scholarship, or at least favourable mention, at the next. Of course, a teacher could gain some useful measure of a pupil's proficiency by formally applying a test such as is here suggested. At the 1903 examination there were six candidates unable to obtain 40 per cent., and three of these gained little more than 30 per cent. In conclusion, it may be stated that all the candidates who gained over 50 per cent, did, in one way or another, creditable work. Care had been taken not to make the questions too easy." Statistics. A statement of expenditure in connection with Native schools will be found in Tables Nos. 1 and 2 of the Appendix, the former table giving the details which are summarised in the latter. The expenditure for 1903 has exceeded that of 1902 by £1,733. This increase is due to the increase in the number of schools and expenses connected with them, and to the increased activity in manual instruction, especially in connection with the establishment of the mode] kaainga at Pamoana. Table No. 3 gives the ages of pupils. There is still a tendency towards an increase in the percentages of children over and under the age-limit (five to fifteen) for public-school scholars. But one must remember, in the case of those above the age, the fact that their chance of education