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The principles which should guide the teacher in his methods of work have been ably emphasized and summed up by the same writer in a recent article. " These are that the physical side of education is basal to mental and moral training ; that child-nature must be studied in order that all instruction may be adapted to the learner's stage in mental development; that sense-perception and practical work should have a place, though not an exaggerated place, in all education ; that the latter should as far as possible be a course of self-development, that the course of study, while enforcing accuracy, patience, and endurance of discipline, should also cause a due measure of pleasurable excitement in the learner ; and that the teacher should endeavour with all his power to train his pupils in the habit of tracing connections between cause and effect, and to inspire them with a real desire to get to the bottom of things. Thus the fundamental issue of that is truthfulness—easy to speak about, most difficult of all to practise in some of the intellectual questions with which the teacher deals and in the circumstances in which the teacher has to work. And yet the touchstone of the noblest and of all memorable teaching is unflinching veracity. This it is that forms character, because it is the expression of the sincere character of the teacher —character, as Goethe said, forming character." We have, &c, J. R. Fleming, | F. H. Bakewell, [ Inspectors. The Chairman, Education Board, Wellington. J. S. Tennant, J

HAWKE'S BAY. Sir,— Education Office, Napier, 11th March, 1907. During the school year that closed on the 31st December last a good deal of educational activity was shown throughout the whole of this extensive school district, and an important advance was made in the erection of school buildings, in the increase in the number of schools, and in the furtherance of manual and technical education. The destruction by fire of the Gisborne District High School buildings, disastrous though it was to the educational progress of the town for a time, has resulted in the completion of a handsome block of brick buildings of modern type and adapted to meet the school requirements of that rapidly growingtown. The other school buildings and additions that were completed during the year are : Kaiti (near Giaborne), Tokomaru Bay, Mohaka, Mangatu, in the Poverty Bay or North Ward; Tipapakuku (near Dannevirke), Lindsay (near Waipawa), and Hopeland, between Kumeroa and Woodville. Enlargements have also been carried out at Frasertown (near Wairoa), and at Mahora (near Hastings). In most of the diatricts ample school places are now provided, and I do not anticipate any new applications for additions or for new buildings except in the following places: Mangapapa (near Gisborne), Mahora which is again over-full, Tipapakuku, W T oodlands Road, near Woodville, where new buildings are badly needed, and a amall school at the Blackburn Ruahine Special Settlement. The grants recently made for the erection of a achool at Paki Paki and for residences in several of the smaller outlying districts will meet a great want in those districts, but it would be well if similar help were granted to provide accommodation for teachers in a number of the places where it is found difficult for teachers to obtain board and residence, such as Port Awanui, Tokomaru Bay, Mohaka, and Mangatu. Ninety-six schools, with a staff of 249 teachers, were in operation at the close of the year. The pupils numbered 9,057 as at the date of my annual visits to the schools, of whom 8,455 were present at examination. These numbers are exclusive of 517 Catholic children who were present in the five schools examined by me. Thus the total number of pupils in the Board and Catholic schools of this education district was 9,574, exclusive of a few pupils belonging to what are known aa " household schools." The 249 teachers who were in the aervice of the Board are claaaed as ninety-six head teachers, 102 assistants, and fifty-one pupil-teachers. One hundred and fifty-two of the 198 principal and assistant teachers hold certificates of competency from th'e Department of Education, and seven others have special licenses to teach. Thus, excluding the pupil-teachers, there are thirty-nine teachers employed by the Board who hold no qualification in the way of technical efficiency, and of these twentyeight are actually in charge of schools. The fact that more than one-fourth of the schools in the district are in the hands of teachers without certificates is not a satisfactory state of affairs, but at present the position cannot be altered. Fortunately all the schools held by them are small, varying from three or four in average attendance to an outside limit of twenty-five. The salaries paid to the teachers in the small schools are not sufficient to command the services of fully qualified teachers, and unless some form of help can be given by the settlers themselves, as was so common in this district in years gone by, I fear even greater difficulties will be experienced in obtaining the services of any one willing to exist under such isolated conditions as many teachers do now. The settler goes into the bush, or the country, prepared to " rough it," but his poaaessions are constantly improving under his vigilant care. Not so in the case of a teacher. Though in charge of an important State industry the prospects of country teachers are by no means bright unless sympathy and consideration are shown to them by the settlers. In some of the settlements I fear that the demand