Appendix A..]

E.—2.

Somerville, Tokomairiro District High : Alexander Ritchie, North-east Valley ; Oliver Edmund Sawers, North-east Valley; Rolfe Latimer, Kaitangata. Senior —Division D : William Parker Morrell, Otago Boys' High ; Moana Maru Anderson, Balclutha District High ; Agnes Randall Blackie, Otago Girls' High; Phyllis Jean H. Turnbull, Otago Girls' High; Stuart Henry J. Wilson, Otago Boys' High ; Robert Faulks Landreth, Otago Boys' High ; Marion Liddell Fyfe, Waitaki Girls' High ; Dorothy Elleanor E. V. Clarke, Otago Girls' High ; Gordon Sidney Crimp, Otago Boys' High. Division E (rural-course candidates) : John Ferguson E. Jack, Balclutha District High ; Rawiri Henry V. Coghill, Balclutha District High : Eric William Thomson, Waitaki Boys' High ; Henry Albert Vezey, Balclutha District High. Three of the Senior Scholarship winners had previously held Junior National Scholarships, and one had held a Junior Board Scholarship. The amount expended on scholarships for the year was —Board Scholarships (Junior and Senior), £1,352 10s. ; Junior National Scholarships, £337 10s. : total, £1,690. The scholarships current at the end of the year were : Junior National—Males, 8 ; females, 5 : total, 13. Board Senior —male, 27 ; females, 12 : total, 39. Board Junior —males. 23 ; females, 11 : total, 34. Totals—Males, 58 ; females, 28 : total, 86. These figures show that for some years past the boys have won over twice the number of scholarships that the girls have. The Board has now decided to make it obligatory on holders of Senior Scholarships (Division E) to take the rural course at a high school or district high school. The names of those who held scholarships in December, 1912, and particulars as to the marks obtained by those who passed the examination at the end of that year, are given in Appendix X, which also contains a complete list of all those who have held Junior National Scholarships. [As the particulars are of purely local interest, they are not reprinted.] Manual and Technical Instruction. —Elementary handwork (paperwork, brushwork, cardboard and plasticine modelling, &c.) now forms part of the ordinary school curriculum, and is regularly practised in all schools in the district, though in some of the schools the time devoted to it is not sufficient to earn capitation. School classes of cookery and woodwork on the Central School system have been carried on as in previous years at North Dunedin, South Dunedin, and Oamaru. Capitation for cookery was earned by 870 girls, and for woodwork by 585 boys, forty-three schools participating in the instruction. Elementary agricultural instruction was given in connexion with 143 schools, the pupils numbering 1,925. The past year has seen the scheme of rural instruction at district high schools fairly launched. The teachers responsible for the work have entered into it with loyalty and enthusiasm, and the Board has every reason to feel satisfied with the results so far obtained. The full course has been carried on in connexion with the district high schools at Balclutha, Tokomairiro, Mosgiel, Lawrence, and Tapanui, and partial courses at Palmerston and Alexandra. As a grant for the necessary buildings at Palmerston has now been sanctioned, the full course will be taken there during the current year. School dressmaking classes were carried on at Owaka. In order to give definiteness to and arouse increased interest in the work of elementary agriculture in the schools, a potato-growing competition has been arranged amongst the pupils of the schools in which that subject is taken. The Otago Agricultural and Pastoral Association has donated the sum of £5 for four prizes for the contest. The crop is to be harvested and weighed by the 18th April next, and the results, certified to by the head teacher and a member of the School Committee, are to be in the hands of the Board's Secretary by the 30th of that month. The area of the school-garden plots to be used foT the purposes of the contest has been fixed at one square pole. Special classes for adults were held as follows : Dressmaking—Owaka, Clinton, Tapanui, Waiwera, Warepa, and Lawrence. Wool-classing —Alexandra, Oturehua, Ranfurly, Waipiata, Middlemarch, Clvdevale. Waiwera, Clinton, Palmerston, Balclutha, Warepa, Hyde, Heriot, Tapanui, Lauder, Lawrence. Woodwork, cookery, typewriting, and book-keeping at Tapanui, and woodwork at Lawrence. The total number of students receiving instruction by means of the Dunedin School of Art teachers was 706, including 100 day students, 183 evening students, 100 Training College students, forty-six pupil-teachers and probationers from Dunedin and suburbs, thirty country pupil-teachers and probationers, seventy-six adult country teachers, forty-one teachers from Oamaru district, eight uncertificated teachers (special course), and 116 day students of the Dunedin Technical School. The report of the Director of the Dunedin School of Art* will be found in Appendix H. The total expenditure on manual and technical instruction was £11,448 7s. 9d., as follows : Maintenance (salaries, material, &c.)— School classes, £3,520 14s. 3d.; special classes, £1,761 15s. 6d. Bui'dings (furniture, fittings, &c.) —School classes, £5,683 7s. sd. ; special classes, £206 os. 7d. The increase in expenditure for the year has been £7,605 16s. 7d. Training-classes for Teachers.— Resides the drawing and handwork classes held at the Dunedin School of Art on two evenings per week and on Saturday forenoons, the following instruction classes for teachers have been carried on for varying periods during the year : At Dunedin —Cookery, dressmaking, vocal music, hygiene, elocution, physiology, and ambulance ; Oamaru—Agriculture and elocution : Alexandra and Ranfurly —Agriculture. Special week-end classes for uncertificated and partially certificated teachers were held in physiology, English, mathematics, geography, arithmetic, methods of teaching, drawing, and practical agriculture. A summer school for uncertificated teachers was held in Dunedin for three weeks towards the end of the year, the number of teachers enrolled being twenty-three. The Board believes that the Government grant with which it was intrusted has been wisely and economically disbursed, and that the classes and instruction it was able to provide have contributed to the advance in scholarship of a large number of teachers who, through their remoteness

iv E. 2 (App. A.I

* This report will joe found in]E.-5.

XXV