ip4

6

Victoria Girls' School, Auckland; Hukarere Girls' School, Napier; St. Joseph's Convent School, Napier; Turakina Girls' School, Wanganui; Te Waipounamu Girls' School, Canterbury. The number of pupils on the rolls of these schools at the end of the year was 419, the average weekly roll 409, and, the percentage of regularity ,91'2. Free places were also held by Maori pupils at the Sacred Heart College, Auckland, and at the Boys' and Girls' Grammar Schools, Auckland. The following table shows the position as to the schools affording instruction especially to Maoris, and subject to inspection by officers of the Department, at the end of 1913 :—

Proceedings to enforce the compulsory clauses of the Education Act have been instituted in several cases, and in most of these with good effect. Two important amendments to the Act have become law during the year—the first providing that a child who has been forbidden to attend school for want of cleanliness may not be absent on that account for a longer period than is necessary in order to remove the cause for which he was forbidden to attend, and the second that where a child who is required to be enrolled on the register of a school is not so enrolled the parent is liable without notice to a fine (sections 9 and 10, Education Amendment Act, 1913, No. 60). In this connexion it may be remarked that the summary of the provisions of the Act issued last year for the information of teachers is now being revised and will be circulated shortly. There are still many Maori children in the North Island who are receiving no education, or who attend school at such irregular intervals as to render any progress impossible. Wherever there is a school, even though at a considerable distance, the children attend, as we have said, with commendable regularity, but there are many small settlements which are quite unprovidedfor. No satisfactory solution has been found to the problem presented by the case of those who with their parents lead a nomadic life on the gumfields of the far north. Dressed in the veriest rags, unkempt and filthy, half-starved, and housed in structures hardly fit for dogs, these children, some of them mere babies, are compelled to live and work under conditions that are appalling. The parents migrate great distances away from their own settlements and do no cropping. Hence during the winter they are forced to contract, with the various gumfields storekeepers, debts which it costs a summer of slavery to work off, and in this the children have to bear their part. Other aspects of gumfields life —the wine-drinking, dance meetings, and the accompanying evils—we need not refer to here, except to point out that they must exert a very bad influence on the young Maori. From the nature of the occupation there is, of course, no reliability on the permanence of any gum camp, and it is impossible to provide schools; but we think that some action should be taken by the authorities to see that the children, even though they are Maoris, are not allowed to work under the conditions which we have described. '..'.' ~. General Remarks. The following remarks are offered in respect to the work done in the various subjects of the curriculum in Native schools during the year : — 1. English.—(a.) Beading: The principal defect in the reading consists of lack of distinctness. It seems impossible to get some children to speak out so that they can be heard without .effort. Without the reading-book before him one cannot possibly follow much of what is being read. Shyness cannot be the cause, for in the schools where the teachers themselves are Maoris the pupils never fail to make themselves heard; as a matter of fact, they are occasionally inclined to overdo it. It seems to us that when the pupil enters school he accepts the fashion in vogue, and the habit of reading clearly and distinctly should therefore be inculcated from the very first. Similar remarks apply to the recitation of poetry :in many of the schools it becomes a mere jumble. Lack of comprehension and appreciation of the ideas underlying the subject-matter is evidenced by the word-by-word style which is still too common. The mere saying of the words does not constitute reading, and in no way assists the child to acquire the power of expressing himself in English. As Dr. Montessori* says: "What I understand by reading is the interpretation of the idea from the written signs. The child who has heard the word pronounced, and who recognizes it when he sees it composed upon the table with , the cardboard letters, and who can tell what it means, this child reads. The word that he reads has -the same relation to written language as the word which he hears bears to articulate language. Both serve to receive the language transmitted to us by others. So until the child reads a transmission of ideas from the written word, he does not read." Further, the child should read a passage as he would speak it, and this involves such an intelligent comprehension of the subject-matter as will enable him to group together words that are connected together in thought. We consider that, owing to neglect of this, the progress made in the power of expression is quite disproportionate to the amount of reading covered

* The Montessori Method, p. 296. "

Schools. Number. Average Weekly Boll Number. Average ■ . Percentage of Regularity. I Native village .'. Native mission .Schools affording secondary instruction 107 3 10 4,835 118 409 4,142 106 373 I 85-7 89-8 91-2 .'. Totals .. 120 120 5,362 4,621 86-2