E.—s

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higher and nobler plane which is so marked a feature of the older secondary schools. In course of time this feeling of pride in their school will be even stronger in the minds of Technical School students, for the reason that their school-work is, in general, closely related to their life-work; and thus there should be established a closer bond of fellowship between pupil and school than is usually to be found in secondary schools. lam glad to announce that the Past Students' Association has been given representation on the Technical College Committee. In the evening classes the enrolments were not so numerous as in the previous year, the total individual students being 557. Most of these pupils attend by virtue of the compulsory clauses of the Education Act, which have been in force in this district for eight years. The progress made by compulsory students varies with the student, but on the whole a great amount of good results from their attendance at the classes. The behaviour of the students is remarkably satisfactory, and very few prosecutions were necessary for bad attendance. Compulsion is objected to by some parents, but there are many others who welcome it. It falls heavily upon boys of delicate constitution, for they have to be at their classes on two evenings per week and at military drill on one evening; the late night at business takes them out for another evening, and the customary evening at the pictures or some other form of entertainment brings their evenings spent out of the home to five in each week. Few of such boys can be home before 9.30 on these evenings, and as the compulsory age, fourteen years to seventeen is the most impressionable age, when habits are formed that endure often for life, it would seem that it would be to the interest of the Dominion as a whole if both physical and mental training were taken in the daytime rather than at night. Voluntary Contributions. —Voluntary contributions totalling £188 16s. 3d. were received during the year. A further sum of £130 was promised. The thanks of the Board are due to the New Zealand Farmers' Union; the Feilding Chamber of Commerce; the Wanganui Builders' Association; the Marton, Feilding, and Wanganui Borough Councils; the Rangitikei, Waitotara, Wanganui, Manawatu, Oroua, Kiwitea, and Pohangina County Councils, as well as to many private subscribers, for their continued support. In addition to the above the following donations were made by local bodies towards the purchase of a site for the [feilding Technical High School: Feilding Borough Council, £500; Oroua County Council, £400; Manawatu County Council, £400; Kiwitea Countj' Council, £300. W. H. Swanger, Director. Extract from the Report of the Palmerston North Technical School. The school opened this year with a roll number of 384 individual students attending fifty-two classes in which there was a total of 1,045 enrolments. During the course of the year the number of classes increased to fifty-eight, with an enrolment of approximately 1,150. The total number of pupils admitted during the year was 580, made up of 208 free pupils and 372 paying pupils. The classes on the whole have been well attended, and the average was better than that of last year. The commercial classes are still among those mostly in demand, but in point of numbers in attendance the dressmaking classes headed the list. An increase in the number of boys taking engineering and electrical work is recorded. Satisfactory work in this branch of education, however, cannot be expected until day classes are established. Attendance at millinery classes was almost the same as for last year, while the cookery section was almost deserted. It appears that the present-day girls wish to learn everything except the one thing most essential to successful homemaking, and it is to be hoped now that there are fewer possibilities for girls in clerical work they will turn their attention more to the development of a good domestic training. The art department has kept up its efficiency in every way, and some excellent work received first prizes at the recent spring show. About fourteen discharged soldiers have attended classes, with varying success. The work of the book-keeping classes has been of such a high standard that the local branch of the New Zealand Societj- of Accountants has awarded a prize to the best pupil in each class. Five students were successful in gaining Pitman's shorthand speed certificates this year. Successful wool-classing and sheep-shearing classes have also been carried on. The school year on the whole has been a good one, the teaching efficient, and the general behaviour and tdne. of the pupils good. Donations from the following public bodies are acknowledged : Borough Council, Kairanga County Council, Working-men's Club, New Zealand Farmers' Executive, and from the Technical School Cadets. F. D. Opie, Director. HAWKE'S BAY. Extract from the Report ok the Director of the Napier Technical School. The roll number of the Technical High School has again been a record one, being 293, an increase of 82 over that of last year, and of 164 over that of 1917. The pupils were distributed over the various courses as follows: Agricultural—first year 20, second year 4, total 24; engineering—first year 32, second year 17, third year 9, total 58; commercial (boys) —first year 24, second year 8, third year 2, total 34; commercial (girls) —first year 71, second year 48, third year 14, fourth year 1.1, total 144; home science—first year 25, second year 8, total 33: grand total, 293. The number of paying pupils was 20. It is gratifying to note that greater interest is being taken in the agricultural and the homescience courses, both of which have been established for only two years. However, it would appear that far too many girls are still taking the commercial course. An unsatisfactory feature about a proportion of these latter is that they are content with only one year, in some cases even less, at the day school, and then they consider themselves quite fit for commercial positions. They appear to be over-anxious to commence work, very often in positions that offer no promise of advancement, quite forgetful of the fact that we never have any difficulty in finding for our senior pupils good positions in offices of standing. It is a shortsighted policy to put boys and girls to work before their school training is complete.