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raised for any school library during that year cannot exceed 9d. per head on the average attendance at the school for the year 1912, and in no case can the subsidy for any one school exceed £10. Similarly, for any subsequent year, the subsidy cannot exceed 3d. per head on the average attendance for the preceding year, and in no case can the subsidy for any one school exceed £5 in any year. The books purchased are to be suitable for individual reading in school or at home, and are to be approved by the Board or its Inspector. Due attention is to be paid to providing books suitable for the individual reading of pupils in the lower classes. It is felt that the establishment of school libraries should not only do much to encourage reading among pupils, but should also prove a great boon to parents and others—more particularly in sparsely settled rural districts—and consequently the conditions attached to the payment of subsidies on voluntary contributions provide that, under such conditions as a School Committee may impose, persons other than children attending school may receive on loan such books as are not for the time required by the pupils. When notifying Boards that provision had been made for the payment of grants under the heads (a) and (b), the Department suggested that, to give wider utility to school libraries and to afford pupils greater variety of reading-matter, adjacent schools or schools between which communication is easy might purchase different books and that these should be passed on from one school to another at suitable intervals. The " School Journal," other Publications, Charts, etc. The School Journal has now completed its sixth year of issue. It is published monthly except that there are no issues for the months of December and January, when most of the schools are closed for the summer vacation. To provide readingmatter for the time the schools are open during the month of December, the November number is considerably enlarged. The School Journal is published in three parts suited to the varying capacities of the pupils ; and to public schools, to Native schools, special schools, and certain other institutions more or less under departmental control or supervision, copies are sent in sufficient numbers to provide each pupil on the roll of the standard classes with a copy of the appropriate part. To the institutions just mentioned the School Journal is supplied free of cost, and to a very large number of private schools it is supplied at moderate rates. In addition to the illustrations appearing in the pages of the School Journal, pictures and prints illustrating geography, history, and nature-study are issued separately on cards as aids to oral instruction on modern lines in these subjects. During the year a set of ninety-six pictures illustrating striking events in British history was completed, and a set of thirty-two dealing with Europe geographically and historically was issued. To public schools, Native schools, secondary schools, and technical schools at which elementary agriculture is taught copies of a chart " Vegetation Diseases and Insect Pests " were distributed. It contained pictures of the insects or pests in their natural colours, together with the effects of their ravages, and also approved methods of treatment. A pamphlet entitled " Meteorology of New Zealand "•—an extract from the New Zealand Year-book with the addition of a map showing the distribution of rainfall —was distributed also. " Geology of New Zealand," by Dr. Marshall, a text-book for teachers and other persons, was published during the year. " A Manual of New Zealand Mollusca," by Mr. Suter, is going through the press, and the plates of New Zealand flora published in connection with Mr. Cheeseman's " Manual of New Zealand Flora " have all been received, and the letterpress is being printed. 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. The number of the teachers in the public schools, exclusive of those employed in the secondary departments of district high schools, in December, 1911, and December, 1912, respectively, was as follows : —