Appendix.]

E.—6.

Shakespeare (13) ; Golden Treasury, Palgrave ; Essays of Elia, Lamb. Latin —Arnold's Latin Prose. Bradley ; New Latin Primer, Postgate ; Easy Passages for Translation into Latin, Sargent ; Pro Milone, Cicero (Reid); Aeneid, Book 11, Vergil (Sidgwick) ; Cicero's Select Letters, edited by Rev. J. E. Jean ; Odes, I, Horace ; Cataline, Sallust. French—Contes Choisis, Francois Coppee ; Specimens of Modern French Verse, H. E. Berthon; Maitre Patelin, Anonymous ; French Composition and Idioms, H. Rey ; Wellington College French Grammar, Eve and De Baudiss. Mathematics—Algebra, Elementary Algebra, Borchardt; Geometry, Elementary Geometry Books IV-VII, Baker and Bourne. Trigonometry —New Trigonometry for Schools, Parts I and 11, Borchardt and Perrott; Examination Papers, Ward. Mechanics—Statics, Loney ; Dynamics, Loney ; Hydrostatics, Briggs and Biyan. Botany —Structural Botany, Flowerless and Flowering Plants, D. H. Scott. Heat;— Heat, R. T. Glazebrook. Lowest. —The Lowest Division (Form IIId) have covered a year's work towards the Junior Civil Service Examination. The pupils in this division have only been in the school for one year, and are for the most part pupils from primary schools entering on Junior Free Places. Those subjects marked with an asterisk are new to the pupils on entry, and they have had one year's tuition in them. Latin* —Limen, Walters and Conway ; Caesar's Invasion. French* —Contes et Legendes, Guerber. English —Outlines of English Grammar, Nesfield ; Preparatory Reading and Composition, Marsh ; selections from Hiawatha, Longfellow ; Lay of the Last Minstrel, Scott; Ivanhoe, Scott; The Water Babies, Kingsley ; Westward Ho, Kingsley. Mathematics—Borchardt's Elementary Algebra*, Part I; Baker and Bourne, Elementary Geometry*, Books I-IV ; Borchardt's Junior Arithmetic Examples. History —Robinson's Illustrated History of England. No text-book used in botany,* or physical measurements,* or geography.

HAMILTON HIGH SCHOOL. Staff. Mr. E. Wilson, M.A. ; Mr. J. G. Paterson, M.A., M.Sc.; Miss E. C. Collins, B.A. ; Miss D. B. Johnson ; Mr. L. Ward ; Mrs. A. M. King. 1. Report of the Board of Governors. I have the honour to submit, for your information, in accordance with the request contained in your letter of the 18th November last, my report on the Hamilton High School for the year ended 31st December, 1911. Hamilton is now in the proud position of having a secondary school. The first provision made for free secondary education in Hamilton was the establishment in 1908 of the Hamilton West District High School. Small at first, some fifteen scholars in all, the secondary classes increased in numbers year by year till, in 1909, there were between seventy and eighty on the roll of the secondary department. Realizing the many advantages that would accrue from the establishment in this centre of a high school proper, the Chamber of Commerce, with the co-operation of the local School Committees, moved for the disestablishment of the District High School, and its replacement by a secondary school similar in constitution to the other secondary schools of the Dominion. The result of this action was the granting by the Department of £4,000 for the erection of a school to provide the wished-for facilities for secondary and technical education. The foundation-stone of the new school was laid in July, 1910. The completion of the building was followed by the disestablishment of the District High School and the placing of the new institution, hereafter known as the Hamilton High School, under a Board of nine Governors. At the first meeting of the Board Mr. Eben Wilson, M.A., who had been in control of the secondary department of the District High School since its inception in 1903, was appointed headmaster, and on the 13th July school was finally opened by the Minister of Education. The high school is pleasantly situated, on elevated grounds overlooking Seddon Park—a central position especially appreciated by those scholars coming to school by rail. The main building is an imposing structure, in brick, containing six class-rooms, fitted upon modern lines. One of the largest rooms has been specially constructed as a laboratory for practical work in chemistry, physics, botany, and agriculture, and when fully equipped, which it will be before the first term of 1912, will be one of the finest school laboratories in the Dominion. To the rear of the main building are commodious shelter-rooms and the school workshop. The school-grounds cover about 5 acres. They have recently been laid out and planted in shrubs and ornamental trees, one portion of the area being reserved for practical work in gardening and agricultural training. A pleasing feature of the school's activity during its brief existence has been the great amount of work done by the scholars themselves in beautifying the school-grounds. In framing the curriculum the Board has endeavoured to combine in judicious proportions cultural and vocational studies. The school is in no way a technical school in the sense that its scholars are trained for various trades and crafts. What we are aiming at is the all-round development of the faculties through the medium of languages, mathematics, and science. This, we take it, is the main function of a secondary school. At the same time, we have , endeavoured, by the introduction of studies bearing more or less directly on life pursuits, to give students in the different courses some knowledge of the fundamental principles underlying the work to which many of them will direct their energies on leaving our school. At the close of the current year there were three teachers on the staff of the school—Mr. Eben Wilson, M.A., headmaster ; Mr. J. G. Paterson, M.A., M.Sc, who took up his duties as science master in October ; and Miss E. -C. Collins, 8.A., formerly assistant in the secondary department of the District High School. Arrangements have been made with the Technical Department, Education Board,

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