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purposes on a more generous basis than ever before. There is, unfortunately, no small difficulty in staffing the secondary departments of district high schools adequately. Teachers are showing some reluctance to offer themselves for this very important branch of the service, in spite of the improved prospects there. Native Schools The number of children in the Native schools continues to increase, there being 12,654 in 1946, as against 12,190 in 1945. The following developments took place in the service during the year : (1) Three Form 111 classes, with a total roll of 34, were established during the year at Te Kaha, Ruatoki, and Murupara. They will become district high schools in 1947. The rolls of the Native district high schools are still growing steadily. (2) Authority was given to increase the number of junior scholarships for Native schools from 174 to 200 over a two-year period. (3) Twenty-nine Maori students entered training college in 1946, compared with 16 in the previous year. There is also an increasing demand amongst Maoris for University education, seven scholarships being current during the year. (4) The new secondary school curriculum is allowing the district high schools to develop a practical course satisfactory to the majority of Maori pupils at the same time that they prepare the more academically able children to sit for the School Certificate. This appears to be meeting the objections originally raised by some Maori parents and may account for the flourishing state of the district high schools. (5) A successful refresher course for Native-school teachers was held at Rotorua in February. (6) An interesting new development was the appointment of two Maoris in Northland and one on the East Coast as*itinerant instructors in Maori arts and crafts. (7) Three specialist teachers of physical education (one of them a Maori girl) havebeen appointed, each to cover a group of Native schools. Islands Education In 1946, following a report by a team of Education Department officers on education in those Pacific Islands for which New Zealand is responsible, an Officer for Islands Education was appointed to the staff of the Department. Working in conjunction with the Island Territories Department and with the local authorities, he has the task of developing and supervising the education systems of the Islands. In 1946-47, the Government made available a sum of £16,700 to provide for an extension of the scholarship scheme begun in 1945, for supplying much-needed teaching materials (projectors, infant apparatus, text-books, &c.) and for the training in New Zealand of specially selected Native teachers. Under the scholarship scheme selected pupils from Samoa, Cook Islands, and Niue Island have been admitted to New Zealand schools for further education. The following table summarizes the position up to the end of 1946 :

Scholarship tenable in New Zealand

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Year. Samoan Pupils. Cook Island Pupils. Mue Island Pupils. 1945 1946 Total .. 14 13 5 2 2 27 5 4