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Office of the Department of Education, My Lord,— Wellington, 31st July, 1923. I have the honour, in accordance with the provisions of the Education Act, 1914, to submit to Your Excellency the following report upon the progress and condition of public education in New Zealand during the year ending the 31st December, 1922. ■ I have, &c, C. J. Parr. His Excellency the Governor-General of the Dominion of New Zealand. • .

REPORT. CONTENTS. This report, with its appendix, gives the information which is of general public interest with regard to the administration of the Education Act, 1914, and its subsequent amendments, also the Education Reserves Act, 1908, as subsequently amended. It gives also the expenditure of public funds appropriated by Parliament for educational purposes, and the principal statistics relating to matters which are more fully dealt .with in separate papers, as follows: — E.—2. Primary Education ; with appendices, namely— Appendix A, Report of Chief Inspector of Primary Schools, Appendix B, Reports of Education Boards ; Appendix C [not printed this year] ; Appendix D, Training of Teachers ; Appendix E, List of Public Schools, Teachers, and Salaries. E. —3. Education of Native Children. E. —4. State Care of Children, Special Schools, and Infant-life Protection. E. —5. Technical Education. E. —6. Secondary Education. E. —7. Higher Education. E. —8. Teachers' Superannuation. INTRODUCTION. As an introduction to this report the principal activities of the Education Department during the last two years, which, to some extent, mark the progress being made in the building-up of the education system of this Dominion, are briefly summarized as follows : — Provision has been made for greatly increased numbers of students to be trained at the training colleges, the numbers having grown from 582 in 1919 to 1,217 in 1923, and the output of trained teachers at the end of 1922 being 593. The result has been a great easing of the difficulty in securing for the teaching staff the services of qualified teachers, and the appointment of 250 additional assistants has been approved, thus reducing the size of a corresponding number of large classes. Arrangements have been made for the Department to become responsible for the salary of a Professor of Education at each University college, who will relieve the Principal of the training college of the duty of lecturing on the subject of education to the training-college students. The nationalized system now established for the appointment and promotion of teachers is admitted to be a pronounced improvement over methods previously