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APPENDIX A. RE POET OF THE CHIEF INSPECTOR OF PRIMARY SCHOOLS. Sir, — Wellington, Bth June, 1925. I have the honour to present my report for the year 1924. There were several changes in the inspectorial staff during the year : Messrs. F. EL Bakewell, M.A., and A. L. Wyllie, M.A., Senior Inspectors in charge of Wellington and Southland Education Districts respectively, retired ; Mr. W. Bird, M.A., Senior Inspector, Hawke's Bay, was transferred to Wellington ; Mr. D. A. Strachan, M.A., was appointed to Southland, and Mr. M. McLeod, 8.A., to Hawke's Bay ; Mr. D. McCaskill, 8.A., was transferred from Westland to Hawke's Bay. The following head teachers were appointed Inspectors : Messrs. D. Leslie, B.A. (to Auckland) : J. Wyn Irwin, M.A. (to Wellington) ; and S. J. Irwin, B.A. (to Westland). I desire to here place on record my appreciation of the long and efficient service rendered the cause of primary education by both Mr. F. H. Bakewell and Mr. A. L. Wyllie. The following table shows the distribution of the inspectorial staff over the Dominion, and also the number of schools and teachers supervised in each education district: —

With the object of overcoming any tendency to parochialism in primary education, and with the further aim of securing greater uniformity in the grading of teachers, each of the Senior Inspectors spent three months during the early part of the year in another district, and typical schools were exchanged. In all some 120 schools were thus visited by the Inspectors stationed in an adjoining district. It is difficult to assess the results of these experiments, but there is no doubt that the indirect value of comparing the schools and the teachers fully compensated for the additional cost. As far as the grading of teachers is concerned the Senior Inspectors' reports of their impressions were very reassuring, inasmuch as they bore testimony to a very satisfactory degree of uniformity in the award of grading-marks. The exchanges, too, served to reveal points of weakness either that had escaped the notice of the local inspectorial staff or to which they had become accustomed. During July, August, and September I inspected schools in Fiji and Samoa, and also attended an Australasian Conference of Inspectors in Brisbane. The Conference was a most profitable one from many points of view, and I was enabled to secure at first hand information that has already proved of service to the Department. My report on the Conference has already been submitted to you, and copies have been forwarded to all the Inspectors. I feel strongly that association with our colleagues in Australia is well worth maintaining, and I trust that the Department will be able to send a representative to the next Conference, to be held in Hobart during Easter, 1926. During my visit to Australia I had the opportunity of visiting typical schools in Queensland and New South Wales, and of looking closely into the system in the latter State. I was much impressed with the simplicity and directness of the system of administration in New South' Wales, and am quite sure that it is a less costly one than our own, with its many ramifications and divided authority. The powers and duties of Inspectors in New South Wales are much wider than in New Zealand. An Inspector there is placed in charge of a district, and performs, in addition to the ordinary work of inspection, much the same administrative duties that in New Zealand fall to the lot of the Secretary of an Education Board. He has, however, nothing to do with the payment of teachers' salaries, which are paid by the central Department. In New Zealand the payment of salaries is, to my mind, a needlessly roundabout process, involving the employment of many clerks in different parts of New Zealand ; the New South Wales system is a much simpler one. The grading of teachers in New South Wales is also a simple process, and occupies much less of the Inspectors' time than our own. lam indeed

Number of Schools. Number of Teachers. District, Number of Public. Inspectors. Average Total in Public Private. Total. per and Private P T „ a | Above Inspector. Schools. -inspector, u. j Qrade Q Auckland .. 12 50 703 60 813 68 1,934 . 161 Taranaki.. .. 3 11 161 16 188 63 383 128 Wanganui . . 4 23 186 30 239 60 550 138 Hawke's Bay . . 3 27 160 31 218 73 507 169 Wellington ' .. 5|* 32 226 48 306 57 860 161 Nelson .. . . 2§* 28 116 9 153 57 261 98 Canterbury . . 7 16 379 64 459 66 1,160 166 Otago .. .. 5 17 243 25 285 57 683 137 Southland .. 3 15 181 12 208 69 406 135 45 219 | 2,355 295 2,869 64 6,744 150 * One Inspector shared by these two districts (Inspector since transferred to Wellington).