E. K. MULGAN.]

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work, which might very well be left alone for a year or two. The only objection is the difficulty that would be experienced in grading teachers on the staffs of these schools. But we cannot omit these schools, on account of Regulation 1. I have no doubt all the Boards are anxious to carry out the regulations, and feel they should provide for two visits, but that means that in hurrying from one school to another an Inspector cannot spend sufficient time in certain schools where their presence is required. 33. Then you think that Regulation 1 might be modified to make visits twice a year optional? —Yes. 34. In regard to private schools, do you think it would be possible in the present state of public opinion to compel by penalty private schools to subject themselves for examination?—l would use the word " inspection." An Inspector should go there and inquire into the efficiency of the school. 35. Do you think that the inspection should cover, as well as the efficiency of the teaching, the buildings and appliances?— Undoubtedly. I do not think you can have efficient teaching unless you have proper appliances. The State is prepared to give efficient instruction to its young people. If a private individual comes in and says, " I will provide this instruction," then he ought to do it as efficiently as the State. We ought to insist on that. 36. Do you think the difficulty in getting a supply of women for teacherships is as great as getting a supply of men?—No; on the whole, we have greater difficulty in getting men. 37. Do you get sufficient applications from girls for the vacancies generally?— Yes. 38. Do you think it would meet with the objection to ike present scale to teachers if the payments to men were raised, if it were not possible to raise the payments to both ? —I think if you have to make a choice between the women and the men it would be better to give the men the additional pay; but I would sooner see the addition given to both. 39. But the great want is male applicants?— Yes. 40. Mr. Wells.] This is the largest of the educational districts?— Yes. 40a. Have you found it unwieldv?—Yes, in this way: It is very hard for me, as Chief Inspector of Schools, to have a personal knowledge of many of the teachers. It is quite impossible to have a personal knowledge of all; and the knowledge I possess of the teachers here to a very large extent I gleaned from the experience I had when travelling round the country doing the work of an Inspector. 41. Still, with a strong inspectorial staff, I suppose it would not be a serious disadvantage for the Chief Inspector not to know each teacher? —I do not think it would be. 42. As to the unrest you spoke of among the teachers in regard to promotion, is not that unrest mainly evident in the smaller districts? —I think it is, but of course there will always be a certain amount of unrest. There will always be those in the teaching service who think they have not climbed as high up the steps of the ladder as they deserve. 43. If the education districts were larger, do you not think that one of the difficulties of which you speak would disappear?— How are you going to enable a teacher to get from one district .into another? We are constantly faced with that trouble. 44. There are at present thirteen education districts. Suppose we had six or four districts, then there would be a number of prizes in each district to which all in that district could look forward. Would that not do away with some of the unrest or a large amount of the unrest?— Yes, I think it would to some extent; but would not the other be a much more efficient remedy? Suppose that the teachers all over the Dominion could feel that they should have a chance to get from one education district to another, and suppose that every teacher could feel that he or she was in the field for all the so-called prizes, the unrest would be much more likely to be eliminated. 45. The Chairman.] You mean that if a teacher is a unit in a national system instead of in a sectional one he would have more to look forward to? —Yes. 46. Mr. Wells.] Do you not think that the division of the Dominion into larger education districts would be a stepping-stone to that? —Yes, I do. I have thought for a long time that the whole of the education districts ought to be put into the melting-pot and their boundaries redetermined. 47. Can you give us any indication of what you would suggest in regard to improving the syllabus?— Briefly speaking, it might be improved, and would be improved, in my opinion, by altering the arithmetic and making it, as the Inspector-General said this morning, simpler— leaving out some of the things he mentioned, and also dividing it up in such a way as to ease Standards II and V. Too much is expected in these two classes. 48. Would you simplify the geography programme at all? —I would alter it. I would not make any distinction between Course A and Course B. 49. Would you propose to strike out any of the mathematical geography that is now being taught?-—I would not. lam not a great believer in striking out so long as y r ou give the teachers the option of utilizing the various suggestions made. The course of geography suggested in the syllabus is not intended to be mandatory. 50. You have mentioned the payment of teachers, and I can quite understand that you do not care to say anything about the payment of the inspectorate. Do you mind telling the Commission whether you do not think the inspectorate should be the prize in the profession—that the pay of the Inspectors should be such as to tempt the very best men in the profession into the inspectorial ranks? —I am dealing with myself more or less personally. I do think so, and for that reason I referred to the case of the Inspector-General of Schools. I think that in his case that applies with far greater force than in the case of an Inspector of Schools employed by a Board of Education, 51. Some little has been said about the shortage of teachers : do you think it would be practicable to import teachers who have been through a training course at Home, and are young enough

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