31

B.—lβ

great value of correct breathing, we feel sure that not only will immediate good result but that much advantage will eventuate to their physical well-being in after life. Since our last report cadet detachments have been eatabliahed at Stoke, Hope, Spring Grove, Riwaka, and Whakarewa, while the companiea in and around Nelson have been formed into a battalion. Handwork.—Some form of handwork has been undertaken in forty schools. Included in this number are all the schools in each of which two teachers are employed, and eight under sole teachers, who as a class have shown commendable zeal in attempting one or more of the additional subjects. The treatment was considered satisfactory in thirty-five of these, and good in nine. In thirty-four schoola the courses chosen embraced modelling in plasticine, brush-drawing, elementary design and colour work, brick-laying, stick-laying, paper-folding, or modelling in carton. In fourteen schools (two more than last year) swimming and life-saving are taught, and in fifteen elementary physiology and first aid. The former might well be more general, and more attention should be given by lady teachers to the instruction of the girls. The bulk of the twenty lessona required could be easily got in by giving a half-hour lesson every afternoon during the first month of the school year, thus leaving but few to complete in November or December. A circular from the Department dated the Bth November calls attention to the urgent need for more general instruction, and we hope that the appeal will not be in vain. One form of encouragement given by the headmaster of the Nelson Boys' School is well worthy of imitation. He has of late years made a practice of bestowing upon each swimmer among his pupila a certificate atating the diatance —25 yards, 50 yards, 100 yards, &c.—that the recipient can swim. Elementary Agriculture, formerly cottage gardening, has been attempted at five schools. Under the supervision and direction of the newly appointed Instructor in Agriculture we expect to see considerable extension and development under this head. All the above-mentioned classes are conducted by school-teachers. Girls' school classes in cookery and dressmaking were conducted in Nelson, Westport, Reefton, Richmond, and Wakefield by special teachers who are not on the permanent staff. Classes for boys in woodwork have been similarly conducted at Nelson and Reefton. In expectation of botany and agricultural chemistry classes being formed, classes for the instruction of teachers in Nelson were limited to freehand, model, blackboard, and brush drawing, elementary physics and chemistry, and woodwork. A technical school has been established at Wakefield, and there, or at Nelson or Reefton, manual and technical classes—that is, classes which are not confined to school -children —were held for instruction in wood-carving, mechanical drawing, woodwork, dressmaking, painting, architectural drawing, drawing from casts, modelling, plumbing, cookery, mathematics, and a commercial course (shorthand, bookkeeping, and typewriting). Continuation classes, which, as the name implies, are intended to enable children who have just left school to continue their studies in school subjects, of a Standard V or higher character, have been held in Nelson for arithmetic, English, book-keeping, French, and shorthand. The public-school teachers are best qualified for work of this character, and that they have not undertaken it more generally may be due to lack of enterprise or a disinclination to tax their spare time. In fifteen schools conducted by male sole teachers, needlework has been taught as a subject of manual and technical instruction. Needlework is in the ordinary school course universally taught to girls, and in a few instances to boys, and with considerable success, the great majority—eighty-six schools —doing very satisfactory work in all classes. Of these twenty-nine were commended as good, and two excellent. Whatever deficiencies were noticeable were discovered rather in the quantity and variety of the selections than in the quality of the sewing. For example, the cutting-out prescribed for Standards V and VI had received sometimes but scant attention. Excellent samplea of individual work were seen in many schools, some of the smallest comparing favourably with the largest. The exhibition of these has done much to encourage both teachers and children to put forth their best efforts, and the comparisons have had a stimulating effect upon the quality of the following year's productions. One hour and a half weekly is the time usually given to this useful branch of instruction in our most successful schools. Nature Study and Science.—ln sixty-two schools a course of work in nature study or science has been taken up, in forty-two of these in a satisfactory manner. In forming our judgment we have paid attention more especially to the method in which the subject was treated. In this connection some schools had well-arranged apparatus, showing in a graphic way the stages in the development of insect-life, while others devoted their attention to the study of local plant-life. Among the latter some of the schools had made very elaborate and comprehensive collections of the plants of the district. The science usually taken up was physics, on the fines of the syllabus. Drawing.—Though, according to our figures, improvement in drawing is apparently slight, the subject is as a rule satisfactory, and we are pleased to find that this year a larger number than usual have reached the " good " limit, although we have certainly been more exacting in expecting the full requirements of the new syllabus to be carried out. Many have made very laudable attempts to cover all the varieties of work prescribed, a task which for sole teachers requires considerable skill and discretion to insure each division receiving fair attention. The different branches of freehand have all received conaideration. Small copies have been but little used, and where large copies, as for example those set on the blackboard, have been fully employed, there is no great loss, as the training of the eye is more likely to be secured by the latter system. Drawing from actual objects and from nature was very fully practised, to the great delight of the children, but memory drawing, which might with advantage have followed, so that the form might be distinctly stamped upon the mind, was too rarely in evidence. In drawing from memory we_advise only those objects to be chosen whose shapes are worth remembering, and thus drawing can well be correlated with nature study. In some few schools excellent work in pattern