E.—l.

XXXIII

" The University Endowment Act, 1868." The income accrued under this Act, and applicable to purposes of higher education yet to be determined by Parliament, amounted, on the 31st March, 1908, to £292 2s. 6d., received from reserves in Westland. The accumulated rents of the Canterbury reserves, amounting to £3,142 13s. 10d., were paid to Canterbury College in March, 1908, in accordance with the provisions of " The Canterbury College Endowment Act, 1907." Chatham Islands. During the year 1907 there were two schools in operation in the Chatham Islands —viz., the schools at Te One, on the main island, and that at Pitt Island. Owing to the very unsatisfactory state of the attendance it was found necessary early in the year to close the part-time schools at Moreroa, Matarakau, and Kaingaroa. At Pitt Island the school year was a broken one, a change of teacher consequent on the resignation of Mr. Young being responsible for this. The total number of children on the rolls of the Te One and Pitt Island Schools at the end of 1907 was sixty-five— the same as for 1906—while the average attendance for the year was fifty-three. The total expenditure on the schools for the year 1907 was £634 Bs. 3d., made up as follows : Salaries and allowances of teachers, £466 2s. 10d.; repairs and works, requisites, &c, £46 14s. 7d.; scholarships, £87 12s. 4d.; inspection, £10 13s. 10d.; other expenses, £23 4s. Bd. The school at Te One was inspected and examined in the month of January of the present year (1908), according to the regulations for the inspection and examination of public schools in New Zealand. The results generally were satisfactory. It was not found possible to visit Pitt Island, and the classification of the pupils was therefore left in the hands of the teacher. Native Schools. The number of Maori village schools in operation at the end of 1907 was ninety-nine, as against one hundred at the end of 1906. Four new schools were opened during the year—viz., Rawhitiroa, near Raglan; Waikare, Bay of Islands; Reporua, on the East Coast; and Motuti, in the Hokianga district, During the year the schools at Turanganui (Wellington District), Waimana and Kokako (in Urewera country), Whangape (in Hokianga district), and Waikawa (in Marlborough) were closed, while Wairau School was transferred to the Marlborough Education Board. The new schools reported last year as being in hand — viz., Tuhara, Mataora Bay, and Wharekawa — have been completed. Suitable buildings are to be erected" shortly at Waikare and Reporua, while arrangements are in hand to provide for Matihetihe, Rakaunui, and Motiti Island. The number of children on the roll of the schools at the end of December, 1907, was 4,183, as against 4,174 of the previous year. Epidemics of sickness have interfered with the regularity of the attendance, while most of the children in the Tuhoe schools have been withdrawn. The average attendance shows, therefore, a decrease, being 3,561, as against 3,607 in 1906, there being also a difference of 2-8 per cent, in the percentage of regularity. Several schools attained very high percentages of attendance, one, indeed, reaching practically 100 per cent. The past ten years show a very noteworthy increase in the number of children in Maori schools. At the end of 1897 there were 2,864 children attending seventy-seven schools. Since then there has been an increase of 1,319, or 46 per cent., while there are over twenty more schools. This points to the increasing desire for education amongst the Maori race. In addition to the Native village schools, there are six Native mission schools at which primary instruction is given to Maori children, while secondary education is provided for by six boarding-schools under the control of .the various Church authorities. One hundred and forty-nine Maori boys and 125 girls were on the rolls of these schools at the end of the year. The Department's officers inspect and examine yearly both the mission schools and the boardingschools, the latter of which afford, through a free-place or scholarship system,

v—E. 1,