E.—l

XXI

School for Deaf-mutes. The new building is not yet out of the hands of the Public Works Department, the electric-lighting plant having still to be installed and several small works to be finished. These operations, however, are being pushed forward energetically, and it is hoped that the building will be quite ready for occupation by the end of the year. The sum expended during the year upon the new building was £3,157 (is. : d. In 1903 the amount was £8,494 3s. 9d. Three boys and 3 girls left the school during the year, and 5 boys and 2 girls were admitted. At the end of the year the number in residence was 36 boys and 29 girls, 2 boys more and 1 girl less than at the end of 1903. The ordinary expenditure on the institution for the year 1904. was : Salaries of Director and teachers, £1,819 155.; steward, matron, and servants, £759 9s. 9d.; rent, £140; housekeeping, £934 16s. Bd.; travelling-expenses (including transit of pupils), £175 3s. lOd.; school material and material for technical instruction, £3 Bs. 3d.; general maintenance of buildings and furniture, £80 10s. 7d.; clothing, £41 4s. 3d.; medical attendance and medicine, £30 6s. ; water-supply, £38 15s. 6d.; sanitation, £26 15s. 6d.; boarding-out of pupils, £259 14s. lid.; sundries, £110 os. 2d. : total expenditure, £4,411 os. sd. Deducting recoveries, parents' contributions, £360 7s. 3d., the net expenditure was £4,050 13s. 2d. The amount expended in 1903 was £4,096 9s. lid. Two deaf-mute children who, having received partial training on the manual or sign system, were ineligible for admission to our own institution were maintained in the Victorian School for the Deaf, at a cost of £100; and one child was under the charge of a private teacher in Auckland, to whom a fee of £20 was paid by the Department. Institute for the Blind. The Jubilee Institute for the Blind, at Auckland, is a private institution, and not in any way under Government control. Being, however, a " separate institution " under the Hospitals and Charitable Institutions Acts it receives a subsidy at the rate of 245. in the pound upon the voluntary contributions raised by the Trustees, and, in addition, payment is made to it by the Education Department on account of pupils for whose tuition the Department is responsible. The Trustees have received, at various times, other grants in aid of buildings. The total amount paid on account of Government pupils during the year 1904 was £428 12s. lOd. The Department also paid £28 for the separate tuition of a pupil in Christchurch ; £102 10s. was recovered from parents and others. The number of Government pupils at the end of 1903 was 22 ; 2 of these left during the year 1904, and 4 were admitted ; the number of such pupils at the close of the last year was accordingly 24. Native Schools. The number of Maori village schools in operation at the end of 1904 was 100. The number of children on the rolls of these the 31st December, 1904, was 3,754, as against 3,693 at the end of the preceding year. There is thus in the number of children a slight increase, which would have been considerably greater had all the schools been working. The average attendance was 3,084, as against 3,012 in 1904, the regularity of the attendance being 81 per cent., which may be considered as satisfactory. In addition to the village schools there are the four mission schools that are usually examined and inspected by the Department at the request of their controlling authorities. There are also five boarding-schools, established by the authorities of various churches in New Zealand, which furnish at present the only means available of affording higher education specially for Maori boys and girls. The total number of Native schools is thus 110. It may not be altogether out of, plac ; here to correct a common impression that the work of the Native schools does not extend further than the Third or Fourth