E.—2

6

With the exception of two schools the quality of the work as evinced during examination was very satisfactory. methods and bad preparation account Indeed, in one of these the work was so much below the standard throughout the school that there was only one pass in a school of fifty children. In another the general appearance of the children was far from satisfactory, nor could one express much appreciation of their work.jgln the lower classes reading, in which the child proceeds by spelling out word by word, is not for one moment to be regarded as coming near the mark, and teachers should not promote children until they can do better. Handwork is done in several of these schools, and the work at Paeroa is of very high quality. Group Vll. — Eastern Bay of Plenty. Waioweka, Omarumutu, Torere, Omaio, Te Kaha, and Raukokore form the schools of this group, and a very satisfactory state of things prevails throughout the whole of them. The school at Waioweka had to be enlarged, and now Raukokore is filled almost to overflowing. ;The attendance at these schools has been very good. At one school (Torere) the children attend en masse week after week. These schools all made a very pleasing appearance at the annual visit, and they may be regarded as being all in flourishing condition. Handwork is done in most of them, and some of the work in plasticine was of a high order. The people of part of this district have lately entered upon a revival of tohungaism, which has exercised a baneful effect upon the various settlements. Many deaths, due probably to improper treatment, have occurred and have been traced by the people themselves to makutu, a fact which shows that the old superstitions still survive. Thus I was assured by a father that three lines of verse spoken by an old woman had killed his daughter, and, further, that the old woman in question was to be sent away—practically exiled. It is in such a district as this that a nurse in charge of a small nursing-home would be able to do such valuable service to the race. Group VIII. — The East Coast (Gisborne). The schools in this group are : Wharekahika, Te Araroa, Rangitukia, Tikitiki, Waiomatatini, Tuparoa, Whareponga, Hiruharama, Tokomaru, Whangara, and Nuhaka. Of these Whareponga has been closed for the whole year owing to the difficulty experienced in getting a suitable teacher. The Ngatiporou are most appreciative of the value of education, and are themselves on the whole amongst the most advanced of the Native people. Many of them have learned the value of work, and there are to be found along the coast what they call " sheep committees " —a system of co-operative sheep-farms which have done very well. Further south, at Nuhaka, the Maoris have taken up dairying, and it is a gratifying sight to see the brightly shining milk-pans taken by Maoris to the factory. The examination of the schools showed that they are justly entitled to be regarded as most successful. The children had attended exceedingly well throughout the year, and on the whole a very high degree of proficiency had been attained. Nearly all these schools have some special point of excellence. Handwork has been exceptionally well taught in most of them, and this too without any detriment to the other school subjects. The recently established school at Whangara, though not quite so strong in its roll-number as was expected, is doing really excellent work, and the examination was from this point of view, and from the enthusiasm manifested by the parents, a very gratifying one. The halfhearted interest formerly taken in Nuhaka School has now, under a change of teachers, given place to a vigorous pride on the part of the parents, and Nuhaka is now one of our largest and most flourishing schools. Indeed, it can no longer accommodate all the children, and enlargement of the school is necessary. Group IX. — Hawke's Bay, Taupo, Wanganui, Taranaki, and Wairarapa. The schools in these districts are : Tangoio, Te Haroto, Tokaanu, Karioi, Pipiriki, Pamoana, Puniho, Pariroa, Papawai, and Turanganui. The people take a keen interest in the work of their schools, which, indeed, include some of the most efficient Maori schools in the colony. With three exceptions the work shown during the various examinations was entirely satisfactory, and the results were very encouraging. The Committees of these schools are exceedingly jealous of the welfare of their charges, and are disposed to resent any opposition. Hence strong feeling was shown at two places where new schools are being established in close proximity to the existing Native school, in the one instance by an Education Board, in the other by the authorities of a Church. With reference to the work of the various classes in these schools, the remarks already made so many times in connection with the preparatory work again apply in several cases. One finds here and there too much expected from the little children in some subject, while there is quite evidently not sufficient foundation-work laid down in others. The teaching of arithmetic, for example, in the lower classes, still seems to me to be unsatisfactory, and this for the reason that too much is crammed into the year's work. The first stages of this branch of the child's education should proceed slowly, and, in the case of a first-year preparatory, the first numbers form a quite sufficient course. The teaching of reading in the preparatory and lower classes in some of these schools is also not entirely satisfactory, and especially in the case of Ngatiawa children much care is required to see that proper pronunciation of English consonants is secured. Indeed, in this respect, some of the classes were much below the usual standard. Too much reliance had been placed on the alphabetic method, and children who could spell out single words could not read them when they occurred in ordinary sentences. They were forced to proceed word by word, which one can hardly call reading in the true sense of the word. In the senior classes the work is more satisfactory, and in English, especially at Pamoana School, a high standard of excellence has been reached, for the children talk and write English almost as well as European children can do.