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are deterred from a University course by the question of the cost of classes. On account of Senior National scholarships and University bursaries there was paid during the year a sum of £1,320, of which £1,010 consisted of fixed scholarship allowances and £310 was in refund or remission of fees. Secondary Education. At the end of 1907 the secondary schools giving free tuition to duly qualified pupils, and receiving grants therefor under section 87 of the Education Act, numbered twenty-six, as against twenty-three for the previous year. The total number of pupils on the roll of these schools was 3,579, and of this total 2,468 (1,335 boys and 1,133 girls), or 70 per cent, of the roll-number, were given free places under the regulations for free places at a mean average cost to the Treasury of £8 13s. 6d. per pupil; the approximate annual rate as determined on the payments for the last term of the year being £21,596. Id 1906 the number of such free pupils was 2,435, and the approximate annual rate £21,240, with a mean capitation of £8 17s. 4d. per pupil. In addition, free tuition was given to 245 holders of scholarships or exhibitions granted by these schools, by Boards of Education (in some circumstances), or by endowed secondary schools not coming under the conditions, making the total number of free places held at secondary schools 2,735, as against 2,770 for 1906. Further, however, in reckoning the amount of free secondary education in the Dominion must be included an almost equal number of pupils in attendance at the secondary classes of district high schools. As shown below, there were on the roll of the secondary departments of these schools 2,452 pupils who had passed through the elementary school course and were in receipt of secondary instniction not differing materially in character from the instruction given in the secondary schools. All but a comparatively small number of these were free pupils within the meaning of the regulations for free places, receiving free tuition at a total cost to the Government in salaries of £19,961, and an average annual cost per pupil enrolled of £8 2s. 10d. There is thus an approximate total of 5,187 pupils receiving free secondary education, exclusive of those holding free places at technical schools. District High Schools. The number of district high schools in operation at the end of 1907 was 64, as against 61 for 1906, and 59 for 1905. In the secondary departments of these schools the teachers employed, apart from the principals who may or may not have taken part in the secondary instruction, but whose added responsibility is in all cases recognised by some increment of salary, numbered 101, and the number of pupils in attendance was 2,452 — an increase of 2 teachers, and a decrease of 142 pupils. In 1905 a very substantial rise in the attendance had to be noted; the present movement in the opposite direction may be attributed to various causes, among which increased facilities for higher education in other directions and somewhat stricter tests of admission have doubtless much to do. The total annual rate of salaries paid to the teachers of district high schools on the basis of the last quarter of 1907, over and above the amounts payable in respect of ordinary primary schools of similar average, was £20,073, of which a sum of £1,033, payable only to present occupants in virtue of earlier arrangements, is not of the nature of a permanent charge. The remainder, £19,040, represents the present annual cost of secondary education in these schools, and may be compared with the totals £18,484 for 1906 and £13,854 for 1905. With a further deduction from the amount for 1907 in respect to allowances to principal teachers, under Part VI of the Fourth Schedule to the Act, the average salary of secondary assistants at the close of the year was £167 2s. 7d. The average salary actually paid to secondary assistants at the close of the year was £171 10s. Tld.

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