13

E.-l

a number of copies sufficient to provide each pupil in the standard classes with a copy of the appropriate part. An increasing number of private and secondary schools purchase copies at the rate of £d. per copy for Part I, and Id. per copy for each of Parts II and 111. While the School Journal aims primarily at being instructive rather than recreative, there is ample evidence that each monthly number is eagerly looked for and welcomed by the children, and that its influence tends to the very desirable end of fostering the habit and love of reading, not in the school only, but also in the home. In their annual reports the Inspectors of Schools uniformly speak very favourably of the part played by the Journal in the school-work as helping to improve the quality of the reading and bringing more and more into favour the school and class libraries. In addition to containing well-defined series of articles on geography,|history, nature-knowledge, &c, the Journal gives due attention to current topics of more than local importance, to striking events in current history, to important developments in modern discovery and invention, as well as to the recurrent topics of Arbor Day, Empire Day, &c. The Journal is regularly illustrated ; but in addition to the illustrations"appearing in its pages, pictures and prints illustrating geography, history, and naturestudy are being issued separately on cards as aids to oral instruction on modern lines in these subjects. The following series have appeared : Twenty-four pictures illustrating great British battles ; forty illustrations of New Zealand flora ; twentyfour of New Zealand geography; eight dealing with the lives of Captain Cook and Lord Nelson ; twenty-eight of the geography of the British Isles ; twenty illustrating life on H.M.S. " New Zealand " ; twenty-four dealing geographically, historically, and ethnologically with South Africa ; and twenty-four which form the first issue of a comprehensive series dealing with British history ; also a coloured wall-sheet illustrating the lives of Lord Nelson and Captain Cook. During the year the Department has published " New Zealand Plants and their Story," by Dr. L. Cockayne, and a set of three temperance wall-sheets. Among the publications of general interest that are in the course of preparation are " A Manual of New Zealand Mollusca," by Mr. H. Suter; " Geology of New Zealand," by Dr. P. Marshall; plates of New Zealand flora published in connection with Cheeseman's " Manual of New Zealand Flora " ; a chart showing a method of restoring animation to the apparently drowned (prepared by the Health Department); and a special report on the teaching of English in secondary schools (a reprint of a circular issued by the Board of Education, England). The departmental library contains a large number of educational books and papers, most of which are available on loan to Inspectors, teachers of primary or secondary schools, and others interested in education. Staffs of Public Schools. (E.-2.—Table El, page 81.) The number of the teachers in the public schools, exclusive of those employed in the secondary departments of district high schools, in December, 1909, and December, 1910, respectively, was as follows :— TABLE E. —Numbbb of Teachers employed. Adults, — L 909. 191 U. Men .. . UOfi 1,456 Women L,208 2,252 Total . . 3,614 3,708 Pupil-teachers. - Male .. 166 174 Female 530 526 Tol . . i 700f All teachers.— Male J.. . 1,572 .1,630 Female .. . . . . 2,738 2,778 Total .. 4,310 4,408 * Exolueive of 25 male and 139 female probationers. j Exclusivr of .'i2 male and 151 female probationers.