8.—2.

[Appendix A.

Physical Training.—During the year the course of instruction set out in Dovey's Manual was followed with more or less success in all schools. A short course of instruction was given by Instructor Routledge at the Technical College, Wanganui, but the attendance was not so good as might have been expected, considering the quality of the instruction. Fire DrTll. —In response to the representations of several Fire Boards, the Board has made several structural alterations of buildings to facilitate exit in case of danger. The Board also, by circular, invited teachers and Committees to institute the practice of fire drill, as recommended ,by the Associated Fire Brigades. The movement has been taken up readily, and the local Superintendents of the brigades are doing everything in their power to assist the teachers. Inspection.—The Inspectors have presented an exhaustive and many-sided report, chiefly statistical in form. Respecting the quality of the work done at the schools, they assess 141 schools as being from satisfactory to excellent, forty-two as fair, and thirty-five as below fair. The schools below satisfactory may be assumed to be almost exclusively those taught by inexperienced and uncertificated teachers in remote parts of the district. It is to these schools that the Organizing Inspector mainly directs his energies, and it is clear that there is a great work to do in this connection. It is satisfactory to note that so many of our pupils (692) presented themselves for the Proficiency Examinations, the total percentage of passes being 893. Arbor Day.—Arbor Day was celebrated on the 19th of July. A considerable number of schools carried the programme issued by the Board through in its entirety, and lasting improvement in the appearance of the school-grounds will result. In their reports the Inspectors again » comment in favourable terms on the development of the school-garden movement, and also on the effort being made in many school districts to make the school-grounds the most attractive feature of the locality. The thanks of the Board are due to the various agricultural associations that have countenanced the school-garden and school-beautifying movement. The Manawatu Agricultural and Pastoral Association has made school exhibits a prominent feature at its annual show for many years. The Feilding Agricultural and Pastoral Association has for several years awarded prizes for the best-kept gardens and exercise-books, and last year the Egroont Agricultural and Pastoral Association followed suit; while the Cheltenham School Committee holds an annual show of produce grown by school-children, and gives prizes for the best gardens kept by school-children at their homes. Details regarding the awards made by the agricultural and pastoral societies will be found in the report of the Superintendent of .Manual and Technical Instruction. The various horticultural societies, notably those at Wanganui and Feilding, have made school-garden exhibits a feature of their shows, and other similar societies might also assist the movement in the same way. Empire Day.-—ln this district, Empire Day is not a holiday in the ordinary sense. It is a day dedicated to the consideration of national and imperial themes in the schools, and of the place that will be borne in the not-distant future by many of our pupils when they are called upon to play the part of full-fledged citizens. The programme issued by the Board was carried out, as far as was practicable, by the teachers and Committees on the 24th of May, 1911. Candidates for Appointment as Pupil-teachers or Probationers.—Forty-four candidates presented themselves at the examination of candidates for appointment as pupil-teachers or probationers. Of these, seven had passed the Matriculation and thirteen the Civil Service Junior Examination; twenty-two of the candidates have since received appointments. Appointments and Transfers. —The system of appointment of teachers from the promotion list on which the Inspectors have graded the teachers continues to give every satisfaction. In the only instances where objections have been made to the system, special care has been taken by the Committees to point out that they approve of the teacher selected, but desire a wider choice. After carefully weighing the objections to the system pursued with so much success, the Board has seen no reason to make any alteration. At the same time, the recent legislation, by which a teacher is given the right of appeal to an outside tribunal in the case of compulsory transfer, has accentuated the belief that it is wiser to dismiss a teacher who objects to accept a transfer to a lower position than to insist upon the transfer and have to face expensive proceedings all the same. The reason is that if the Board is justified in resorting to the extreme step of compulsory transfer, the publication of the reasons inducing the action of the Board would so damage the teacher's prestige that, if the Board succeeded in the appeal, no Committee would agree to his appointment to a school under their control. This was shown very clearly in the appeal case, T. Stagpoole, headmaster in the Linton School, against his dismissal by the Board. He was offered, as an act of grace, a transfer to a position in a lower-grade school, which did not actually involve a reduction in salary, and which he refused. The Board decided that, as an appeal would probably be brought in any case, instead of compulsorily transferring him he should receive three months' notice of dismissal. The Teachers' Institute appealed on his behalf against the dismissal, and their case was conducted by Mr. R. Stewart, of Auckland, the Chairman of the Board (Mr. Fred. Pirani) defending the decision arrived at. The Appeal Court comprised Mr. Kerr, S.M., Mr. Broad (appointed by the Board), and Mr. R. McNab (appointed by the Institute). The case against Mr. Stagpoole was so clearly proved that the Court not only gave their decision in favour of the Board, but allowed the Chairman of the Board a fee of £2 2s. for each sitting-day, in addition to his actual expenses. The evidence brought out in the course of the case was of such a nature that the Board's contention about an appeal against compulsory transfer completely nullifying the effectiveness of the transfer provisions of the Act was amply proved. Infants at District High Schools. —During the year the case brought in the Supreme Court against the Board by the New Zealand Educational Institute, to compel the admission of infants into the Wanganui District High School, was removed into the Court of Appeal, at the instance of the Institute. The question was fully argued before Chief Justice Stout and Justices Chapman, Williams, Denniston,. Sim, and Edwards by Professor Salmond for the Education Department, Messrs. H. D. Bell and Fell for the Educational Institute, and Mr. Hutton for the

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