Appendix A.]

E.—2

school for salaries and incidentals during the year, and the following table gives the annual totalsf under the two headings from 1878 to the present year : —

Training College.—lt is with great regret that the Board has to report the death of Mr. E. Watkins, 8.A., Principal of the Christchuroh Training College, which took place on the 13th April of the present year. In losing the services of its late Principal the Board has been deprived of an able administrator who has made his influence felt throughout the Dominion. Appointed in 1895, after a long and well proved service as tutor, Mr. Watkins held the position of Principal for nearly seventeen years, during the whole of which period he applied himself to his onerous duties with great assiduity and with a whole-hearted devotion that has commanded the respect and esteem of all who have been closely connected with him. The changes that have taken place during recent years in the management of the training colleges, resulting in the issue of regulations by the Department, have brought anxieties to those directly responsible for the training of our youngteachers. It is not perhaps always possible for a central authority, located at a distance, to fully realize the difficulties that are met with in actual practice. That the management of the Christchurch Training College has been attended by more than ordinary difficulty of late years is well known, and it is therefore all the more a matter for congratulation that the Board at such a time can unhesitatingly express appreciation of the sound professional training its students have received under the wise and kindly control of the late Principal. Applications for the vacancy will be invited forthwith, and in the meantime, in order that the work of the College, both in the training and practising departments, may be continued with as little interruption as possible, the Board has appointed Mr. T. S. Foster, M.A., Acting-Principal. Mr. Foster's report, which is appended,} gives the number of students admitted during the year 1911, and other statistical information. During the year the Board decided to establish a junior kindergarten class in connection with the Training College, so as to afford facilities to those students who are desirous of taking up this branch of school-work. A start was made at the commencement of October, under a specially qualified assistant mistress. Scholarships.—Thirty-two candidates (of whom twenty-seven qualified) sat for the Board's Senior Scholarship—viz., nineteen boys and thirteen girls. In the junior class there were sixtysix candidates (thirty-six boys and thirty girls), of whom only thirty-five qualified. One hundred and thirty-eight candidates (seventy-two boys and sixty-six girls) sat for the Junior National Scholarship Examination, of whom eighty-one qualified. For the Gammack Scholarships there were ten candidates. The first four- in order of merit qualified for and elected to take either a Junior University or Senior National Scholarship. The fifth in order of merit having been awarded a military scholarship, the Board's awards of Gammack Scholarships fell to two scholars, both of whom obtained, in that order, credit in the examination. Lists of scholarships, mainly of local interest, have been omitted. Irregular Attendance.—ln his report for the year 1911 the Truant Officer points out that up to August the attendance was very good, but that afterwards sickness among the children reduced it considerably. The names of a great many irregular attenders were submitted by head teachers, and notices were sent to parents representing 3,012 children. It was not found necessary to take Court proceedings in more than fifty-one cases, in twenty-nine of which fines were inflicted. From Mr. Blank's report the Board gathers that the absence of children from school on the plea of ill health is not always justified, and that in some cases where the Court had been asked to believe that children nearly fourteen years of age were unfit to attend school the supposed invalids, on reaching the age exempting them from the provisions of the Act, were discovered by their parents to be fit for farm life or work in a factory. It is admittedly difficult to deal with cases of this kind, which, however, the Board trusts are few in number. Manual and Technical Instruction. —The report of the Director of Manual Training on the school classes held in Christchuroh, and the reports from the several outlying centres on manual and technical classes generally, are appended. The lease of the building known as the School of Domestic Instruction (Christchuroh), in which cookery and laundry-work classes have been carried

*See Appendix E of this Report. f Condensed into five-yearly periods from 1878 to 1901. X See Appendix D of this Report.

iii—E. 2 (A P p. A).

XVII

Year. Salaries. Incidental Expenses. Totals. Average Attendance. 1878 1883 1888 1893 1898 1901 1902 1903 1904 1905 1906 1907 1908 1909 1910 1911 £ s. d. 31,919 0 0 42,240 19 10 50,749 14 6 56,291 15 9 55,390 3 11 55,320 19 5 57,117 16 2 56,748 2 10 55,579 11 2 57,965 18 7 62,939 2 10 64,240 10 2 65,218 15 9 73,133 5 10 75,389 11 8 77,493 7 0 £ s. d. 6,276 6 9 6,090 15 9 6,400 7 5 6,871 14 10 5,933 II 1 6,579 5 0 6,046 14 2 5,922 10 7 6,027 5 8 6,717 16 4 6,759 16 3 6,694 12 11 6,825 12 1 7,107 10 1 6,487 11 11 6,693 7 7 £ s. d. 38,195 6 9 48,331 15 7 57,150 6 3 63.163 10 7 62,323 15 0 61,900 4 5 63.164 10 4 62,670 13 5 61,606 16 10 64,683 14 11 69,698 19 1 70,935 3 1 72,044 7 10 80,240 15 11 81,877 3 7 84,186 14 7 9,641 12,844 15,920 17,543 17,580 16,591 16,747 16,227 16,712 16,923 16,876 16,232 17,536 17,634 18,063 18,920