E.—s

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We have again experienced changes on our staff. Mr. Hawkins, who acted as part-time ■assistant instructor, received a full-time appointment as instructor in woodwork and buildingconstruction at Gisborne Technical School; while Miss Hyde, who was part-time instructor in cookery, obtained an important appointment in cookery, dressmaking, and needlework under the Education Board, Napier. The work of Mr. Hawkins has been taken up by Mr. Brown and Mr. Judkins, and that of Miss Hyde by Miss Gilmour. But a much greater change has been caused through the withdrawal of Mrs. Gardner from all work in connexion with the primaryschool classes in order to take up the position of Lady Principal of the Girls' Training Hostel. It is unnecessary for me to say how great is the debt which the community owes to Mrs. Gardner for the pioneer work which she did for many years in the face of difficulties and discouragements that would have daunted any without her faith and cheerful courage. Miss Beck, who has for seme years past been associated with Mrs. Gardner, is now ably carrying on her work at the Technical College, assisted by Miss Truman. During the coming year I propose to visit America and Europe, and intend specially to inquire into recent developments of manual training both as regards town and country schools. I trust the information I shall obtain as to the methods in use elsewhere may enable us to improve and to extend the already valuable work that is being done. I am greatly indebted to the staff for the cordial manner in which they have co-operated in making the work so great a success, and I am confident that in my absence the work will be carried out with just the same conscientiousness and care. In conclusion, and on behalf of the staff, I desire to convey to the Board an expression of our appreciation of the encouragement and support which they have always extended to this work. John H. Howell, Director. Extract from the Report op the Chief Instructor in Agriculture. The number of classes at work during the year was as follows: Primary schools, 136; district high schools taking agriculture as a subject, 3; district high schools taking a full rural course, 4. The work begun during the previous year at the Lincoln and Kaikoura District High Schools has been continued and still further consolidated. The pioneering is not y&t over, but there is no doubt that the work is beginning to win its way in the public regard, whilst the special subjects are very popular with the pupils. It is desirable to still further extend the curriculum so as to include such subjects as poultry and bee-keeping, wool-classing, and laundry-work. The year was marked by the re-establishment of the District High Schools at Darfield and East Oxford as new centres for the teaching of rural science. A good start has been made, and it is to be hoped that the parents will show that they are alive to the value of this new opportunity by making a public-spirited effort to support these institutions. I cannot speak too highly of the zeal and ready co-operation in this work on the part of my assistant, Mr. Amess, and of the headmasters and secondary assistants at all these centres. As to quality and mode of treatment, the work in the primary schools still varies from excellent in a few cases to inferior. Each year sees an increase in the number of teachers who realize and make an honest effort to secure the true aims of agriculture as an educative subject. On the other hand, there are those who apparently are slow to apprehend its value or use in the hands of a skilful educator. This is seen in the fact that one still finds that children have been told certain facts, instead of having been given the opportunity of acquiring them by means of observation and deduction. Too much is made of the ability to memorize the fact, whereas what is really of chief moment to the child is the process by which it has been guided to the acquisition of the fact for itself. Then again, one still finds in many cases that the proper use of the school-garden as a field laboratory is little availed of. I have referred on previous occasions to both of these aspects of the treatment the subject is apt to receive, and lest it be thought that I am peculiar in the view that I have always insisted upon, I take the liberty of quoting from a well-known competent authority, who says : "A pupil may pass through an elaborate course of gardening having an end purely horticultural, and emerge with little save an accumulation of information and a knowledge of routine. So long as outward results in the form of crops and a know-ledge of horticultural facts are the primary end in view, rather than the mental'activities necessitated by a study of the fundamental principles underlying operations, and the intellectual growth of the pupil as he reflects and plans and decides in order to bring about desired results, the educational aspects of the subject are being wholly ignored. Prize cabbages and potatoes may be grown by either method. In one case these are the sole aim in view, and failure to produce them indicates failure of the garden-work. In the other case the aim is purely educational; growth, not vegetable but intellectual, is the main object,' and failure to stimulate the latter is in no wise whatsoever compensated by growth of cabbages which would catch a judge's eye on a show table. The main end of one is the production of tangible results; of the other, by the very nature of its aim, intangible results. One method is educationally dead; the other is educationally intensely alive. One is horticulture, the other is school-gardening." The zeal and persistence of the teachers in some of the sole-charge schools is worthy of special commendation. In spite of the multiplicity of classes and subjects they contrive to carry out a praiseworthy amount of work in agriculture. In this connexion I have been wondering whether some plan might be devised whereby the Fifth and Sixth Standard pupils might be sent from these schools to larger centres for, say, one day a fortnight, for woodwork, cookery, and agriculture. The arrangement would necessitate the attendance of an instructor in agriculture, but would relieve the teacher of the responsibility of these subjects and would secure more complete instruction in agriculture than can be given to a small class in a sole-charge school. Upwards of seventy teachers and students attended special classes for agriculture during the year. The attendance and attention to work were almost invariably entirely satisfactory. Somp thirty teachers attended during the session of the summer school in January.