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The Department has found it necessary to increase the accommodation at several schools, and has before it applications of a promising nature for the establishment of several new schools. Information upon these, as far as it has been ascertained, is given in the Inspector's report. During the year a gratifying advance has been made in the matter of handwork in Native schools. Five new workshops have been established, all of them with the assistance of the Maoris, and at small expense to the Department. A beginning has also been made in the matter of giving instruction in cooking, the utensils being such as are in general use in Maori kaingas. Instruction in practical needlework has also, during the year, been considerably developed, especially in the largest schools. For the higher education of Maori youths there are six Native boarding-schools available—viz., St. Stephen's and Te Aute for boys, and Hukarere, St. Joseph's, Victoria, and Turakina Schools for girls. The Government offers 123 scholarships, tenable at one or other of these schools, for two years, to children of predominantly Maori race who pass the Fourth or a higher standard at the Maori village schools ; most of the holders have passed the Fifth, Sixth, or Seventh Standard. At the end of the year thirty-eight of the scholarships were held by boys and forty-four by girls. To Maori children attending public schools who pass the Fifth Standard before reaching the age of fifteen scholarships of the value of £20 a year are granted, to enable them to attend a secondary school or to become apprenticed to a suitable trade. Under these conditions there are seven scholars attending secondary schools and seven boys serving apprenticeships. Further advance has also been made in regard to what are known as "nursing scholarships." There are now (1906) three probationers—one each at the Napier, Wellington, and Auckland Hospitals —while arrangements have been made for admission of three scholars as day-pupils. Six scholarships are offered by the Government to Maori youths to whom it is considered advisable to give university training. Three of these are reserved for those who wish to study medicine, and the remaining ones are open. At present there are three scholarships being held, one student taking the medical course, one arts, and one law. With reference to the conditions under which all the scholarships are granted, it seems evident that higher qualifications may now be safely demanded from those who wish to obtain secondary or higher education. There is already manifest a keen desire on the part of the Maori parents for instruction in manual and technical work of such a character as is likely to be most useful to the young Maori. The ready assistance they have given in various localities during the year in the establishing of workshops is evidence of this desire. The Department is also beginning to find that where boys and girls can obtain practical training of some kind at home, their parents do not wish them to attend a secondary school. It may be seen from these facts that the system of handwork and manual instruction in Native schools is now beginning to bear fruit, and an extension of the scheme is to be looked for as a natural result. For boys, instruction in elementary agriculture is probably the direction in which extension of technical work is desirable, while for girls, needlework, cookery, and domestic economy may be further developed. The total expenditure on Native schools during the year was £24,077, which includes £95 paid from Native school reserves funds and £2,000 from Civil List for Native purposes. Deducting £36, recoveries from various sources, the result is a net cost of £24,041 for the year 1905, as against £24,881 for the previous year. Included in this sum is expenditure on new buildings and additions, £2,560 ; on secondary education (including boarding-school fees for holders of scholarships from village schools, apprenticeships, hospital-nursing scholarships, University scholarships, and travelling-expenses of scholarship-holders), £2,116. The staff of the village schools included seventy-three masters, twenty-one mistresses in charge, eighty-seven assistants, and fifteen sewing-teachers. The masters received salaries ranging from £90 16s. Bd. to £269 ss. 10d. ; the head mistresses from £60 to £176 13s. 9d. ; the assistants from £9 Bs. 4d. to £50 ; and the sewingteachers from £6 16s. 3d. to £18 15s. In one school the master and mistress work

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