8.—6.

[Appendix.

Successes of Pupils. —Boys' School : At the recently held examinations the following distinctions were credited to pupils : L. Bennet gained a Junior University Scholarship ; sixteen passed Mat riculation, nineteen the Junior Civil Service, and two the Senior Civil Service Examinations. Three out of five Education Board Senior Scholarships were gained by pupils. Among old boys, Fred Miles won the Rhodes Scholarship; M. Alexander the Research Scholarship at Victoria College; Dr. E. Lindsay gained his F.R.C.S. diploma; D. Anderson the open scholarship at Lincoln Agricultural College ; H. Fraser and W. Cody, Beverly Scholarships at Otago University ; and the Hon. J. A. Hanan held the portfolios of Education and Justice during the first session of 1912. Girls' School. —-During the year the maximum number on the roll was 156, the average attendance being 143, which was somewhat lower in proportion than usual owing to the prevalence of measles and influenza. At the annual examinations of 1912, one candidate passed the Junior University Scholarship Examination, five qualified for Matriculation, three others passing in five subjects but not in mathematics. Nineteen passed the Junior Civil Service Examination, three with credit, two gaining Senior Board Scholarships. Five more were accredited with passes on the supplementary list issued later on in the year. At the January examinations for Class D teachers' certificate, of the five candidates from the Girls' High School two passed in full, while three gained a partial pass, having failed in one subject only. At the annual visit of the Secondary Inspectors, Dr. Anderson and Mr. T. H. Gill, thirty-two pupils were admitted to Senior Free Places. Girls' School Hostel. —The question of the erection of a Girls' School hostel, an institution designed to serve the double purpose of providing a home where country pupils attending the school might be safely and comfortably lodged, and where at the same time they (and other pupils able to live at home) might receive a practical training in domestic science and hygiene, has engaged the serious attention of the Board for many months past. All the members are thoroughly convinced of the utility—yea, absolute necessity—-for the establishment of such an institution. A Government grant of £3,000 has been promised towards cost of the erection of a suitable building, and an excellent site of 6J aces at Eastend on which to erect the building has been secured at a cost of about £1,700. The difficulty is one of finance. The Board, after mature consideration of sketch-plans (with estimate of cost) prepared by its Architect, has not seen its way to undertake the whole scheme of providing the accommodation necessary for the establishment of the combined institution. It is probable that a section of the proposed building—to provide boarding-accommodation for thirty or forty scholars—may be proceeded with at a cost within the means of the Board. Boys' School. —-In connexion with the Boys' School, the Board, having in view future developments has secured an excellent piece of land —15J acres—on the Collegiate Reserve at Gladstone as a site on which a modern and well-equipped school for boys may be erected, and a proper sports and recreation ground laid out. With an asset such as the present Boys' School and grounds, situate in the centre of the city, available for realization, the establishment at Gladstone of a modern school for boys is quite within the bounds of possibility in the near future. School Buildings. —-The buildings and grounds are in excellent order, and each of the schools well equipped with all necessary furniture and apparatus for carrying on their important work successfully. Financial. —A perusal of the Board's balance-sheet for the past year, and the accompanying statement of assets and liabilities, gives satisfactory evidence of the soundness of its financial position. Copies of the Principals' reports for the past year, with which is incorporated the prospectus for 1913, are sent herewith. All departmental returns for the past year have already been transmitted to your Department. W. Macalister, Chairman. John Neill, Secretary. 2. Work of the Highest and Lowest Classes. Boys' School. Highest. —English—Shakespeare's Hamlet; Milton's Samson Agonistes; third chapter of Macaulay's History ; Palegrave's Golden Treasury ; Chaucer's Prologue ; Historical Grammar ; composition and rhetoric. Latin—Readings in Livy, Cicero, Virgil, Horace ; unseens in prose and verse; grammar ; composition ; history ; and antiquities. French—Vigny's Cinq Mars ; Gems of Modern French Poetry; unseens; phonetics; grammar; composition. Mathematics —Arithmetic, algebra, geometry, and trigonometry to University Scholarship standard. Science —Chemistry, inorganic ; metals and non-metals ; qualitative and quantitative analysis ; electricity and magnetism to University Scholarship standard, with laboratory work. Lowest. —English—Reading, Laureata, Great Deeds on Land and Sea, Legends of Greece and Rome ; grammar, composition, and spelling. Geography—Physical. History—Ransome's Elementary Course. Latin—Welch and Duffield's Accidence ; Gardiner's Translation Primer. French—Siepmann's Primary French Course, Part I. Non-Latin—Book-keeping ; commercial arithmetic ; European history; elementary botany and agriculture. Non-French —Same as for Non-Latin, without the history. Mathematics —Arithmetic, algebra to factors ; geometry as in Barnard and Child's Junior Course. Science —Elementary physics and chemistry, with laboratory work. Girls' School. Highest.— English—Language : Nesfield's English Grammar ; Past and Present; early English selections—the English of Chaucer, Shakespeare, and Milton as typical of fourteenth, sixteenth, and seventeenth centuries ; Chaucer's Prologue. Literature : Henry V ; Brett's Representative English Poems; Froude's Short Studies ; Carlyle's Heroes; essays; synonyms and spelling. French—

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