B.— VI

30

3. Work of the Highest and Lowest Classes. Highest. — Boys. English — Chaucer, Prologue; Shakespeare, Tempest; Spencer, Faerie Queene; Milton, Hymn on the Nativity, Lycidas; Macaulay, Milton; Historical English Grammar, Composition, &c. Latin —Livy, Book XXII. (forty chapters) ; Horace, Epistles; Virgil, iEneid, Book I. ; sight translation from various authors; prose composition; Roman history. French—Selections from various authors ; composition, grammar, &c. Mathematics — Arithmetic (whole subject); Euclid, six books; Algebra; Trigonometry. Science—Botany, the morphology and physiology of botanical types; Chemistry, the metallic elements, revision of nonmetallic elements; physics, heat. Girls: English — Chaucer, The Nonne Preestes Tales: Shakespeare, Macbeth ; Spenser, Faerie Queene (part); Milton's Paradise Lost, Book I. ; Carlyle's Sartor Resartus (part); Historical English Grammar; Composition, &c. ; Literature, general. Latin —Livy Book XXII., twenty-three chapters; Horace, Odes, Book IV., Book 111., eight Odes ; Middleton's Latin Verse ; Reid's Translation at Sight; Composition, Grammar, fe.; Roman history. French—Chardenal's Advanced Exercises; Wellington College Reader; Boielle, Poetry: Barlet and Masom, Higher French Reader; grammar, composition, &c.; Berthon, Specimens of Modern French Verse. German—Macmillan, Part II.; Second German Reading-book. Mathematics — Arithmetic, the whole subject; Algebra, to permutations and combinations ; Geometry, Euclid, Books 1., 11., 111., IV., VI.; Trigonometry—Lock's Trigonometry, to solution of triangles. Science —Botany and Physics as specified for Junior University Scholarship. Lowest. — Boys : English—Lady of the Lake and Adventures of Ulysses; Grammar and Composition. English History—l6o3-1714. Geography —British Isles and Europe. Latin—Welch and Duffield's Accidence. French—Chardenal's First French Course ; Grammar and Composition, to page 36. Mathematics—Arithmetic (whole subject) ; algebra, to division ; geometry —Book 1., to Proposition 10 (Baker and Bourne). Science—Elementary light. Book-keeping—Thornton's Easy Exercises. Girls : English—Literature, Tennyson, The Princess; Longfellow, Miles Standish ; History, James I. to Charles II.; Grammar, Composition, &c, Nesfield's Grammar, Prefixes 33 (one term's work), spelling, parsing, analysis, composition ; Geography—Physical. French—Conversational and Oral Work—Bell's First French Course, to page 46. Mathematics —Arithmetic, Pendlebury, profit and loss, discount, and compound interest; Algebra, Hall and Knight's, to equations; Euclid (Baker and Bourne), experimental work, definitions, axioms, postulates, and four propositions. Science —Botany, structure of flowering plants. SOUTHLAND HIGH SCHOOL. Staff. Boys' School.— Mr. T. D. Pearce, M.A. ; Mr. H. 0. Stuckey, M.A., B.Sc. ; Mr. J. McKinnon ; Mr. J. S. McGrath ; Mr. J. Pow ; Mr. J. Hanna. Girls' School.— Miss E. Sttvenson, M.A. ; Miss J. R. Barr, M.A.; Miss B. Ayton, A.A.; Miss H. McKibbin, 8.A.; Mrs. G. A. Turner ; Mr. J. Hanna. 1. Report. At the beginning of 1904 the Governors comprised Messrs. Watson, Hawke, Macalister, Thomson, and Froggatt. Mr. W. B. Scandrett was elected Mayor, and took his seat on the Board in April. The still-increasing attendance at both schools necessitated considerable additional accommodation. Tiie securing of the use of a large room in the Salvation Army barracks met the needs to an extent, but the arrangement is extremely inconvenient, and seriously affects the efficient control of the classes. The absolute necessity for the erection of a separate girls' school is becoming more and more apparent. The Board has been compelled to act without further delay. The architect was instructed to prepare plans and specifications, and as soon as these are completed a copy will be forwarded to your Department. The building will be erected on the land purchased by the Board with the grant made by the Government for that purpose. At the commencement of the year it was found necessary to increase the staff. With the experience of the two years since the adoption of the Government regulations the Board is satisfied that the inauguration of the principle of granting free places in the high school to pupils from the primary schools has been fully justified, as the following numbers on the roll at the beginning of each year show. During the first term of 1902, the year before the regulations came into force, there were 127 pupils in attendance : this number rose to 206 in 1903, to 248 in 1904, and in the first term of this year 1905 there are 256 on the roll. The Board recognises that a likely result of this large increase of numbers, a result to be vigilantly guarded against, is a general lowering of the standard of work in the schools. Every possible means, however, is being adopted to counteract this downward tendency, and with the increased accommodation which is so urgently needed the Board hopes to be able to maintain the high standard of efficiency which has hitherto characterized the work of the schools. The gymnasium erected by the Board is still much appreciated, and during the winter months is occupied almost every evening by various clubs, and in the daytime by pupils of the primary schools. The teachers of the country schools avail themselves of the gymnasium on Saturdays, and highly appreciate the provision. The lectures on agricultural science referred to in last annual report were continued during the winter of 1904, but were not so successful as those delivered in 1903. The farming population do not appreciate the effort to the extent that was anticipated.