5

E.—3

bootmaking, and engineering trades. Senior free places for girls take the form of nursing-scholarships. There were three of these scholarships in operation in 1914. In addition to the Maori children mentioned as receiving secondary education at special institutions, five others held free places at European secondary schools. The total number of Maoris receiving secondary education in 1914 was therefore 440. Staffs and Salaries. The staffs of the village schools as in December, 1914, included eighty-seven masters, twenty-seven mistresses in charge, 126 assistants, and three sewingmistresses. The average salaries of head teachers was £171 10s. lid. —males £180 os. 9d. and females £144 3s. Bd. The average salary of assistants was £66 13s. Id. if lodging-allowances are included, and £57 Is. lOd. if they are excluded. Lodgingallowances at the rate of £30 per annum were paid to forty assistants, and at the rate of £5 per annum to one. The total amount expended on teachers' salaries and allowances for the year ended the 31st March, 1915, was £29,010. . This expenditure has been practically doubled in the last ten .years. As a result of the provisions of the Education Act, 1914, an improved scale of salaries comes into force from the beginning of the current year. Expenditure. A reference to Table H 9 will show that the total net expenditure on Native schools during the year ended the 31st March, 1915, was £37,133, included in which amount is a sum of £2,757 paid out of revenue from endowment reserves. The chief items of expenditure are teachers' salaries and house allowances, £29,010 ; new buildings and additions, £537 ; maintenance of buildings, repairs, &c., £1,012 ; secondary-school fees, £2,184. Cook Islands. Arrangements for the establishment of the Native-school system in the Cook Islands were made during the year, and a beginning has since been made. It has been decided to open three schools in the Island of Rarotonga and one in Aitutaki, each school having a prospective attendance of from one hundred to two hundred pupils.

'•* No. 2. REPORT OF INSPECTORS. The Inspectors of Native Schools to the Director of Education. Sir, — 15th February, 1915. We have the honour to plaoe before you the following report on the general condition of the Native schools of the Dominion and the work done by them during the year 1914-:— New Schools, etc. At the end of the year 1913 there were 107 Native village schools in operation. During the year 1914 new schools were opened at Waiomio and Kirioke in the Ray of Islands district, Pukehina and Whangaparaoa, Ray of Plenty, and Parikino, Wanganui River. Four schools closed temporarily at the end of 1913 were reopened at the beginning of the year, and one school—Peria, Mangonui was transferred to the Auckland Board of Education : the net result being that the year's work closed with 115 schools in operation. As the result of inquiries made during the year into applications received for new schools, it has been decided to establish schools at Ruatahuna and Maungapohatu, Urewera country; Moerangi, near Raglan ; Kaitaha, East Coast; Whakarewa (Kaiuku), Mahia Peninsula; while the Department has agreed to take over from the Auckland Board of Education the buildings of Purua No. 2 public school and re-erect them for the purposes of a Native school at Kaikou. In all of these cases, with the exception of the two first-named, the acquisition of the sites has been completed and the buildings should be put in hand during the current year. We are sorry to have to report that the survey of the sites for the two Urewera schools has not yet been accomplished, and no progress has been made in their case since last report. To provide for the young children who can attend Te Kotukutuku School only under very considerable difficulties, a side school is to be opened at Rangiwaea, Matakana Islan'd, Tauranga. No progress has been made in the cases of Hiakaitupeka, Oruawharo, Waiohau, and Tanehika ; while it seems that experimental schools in buildings provided by the Maoris might meet the requirements of Waikeri and Otangaroa.