The Kumara Times. Published Every Evening. WEDNESDAY, JULY 9, 1884.

Kumara Times, Issue 2512, 9 July 1884, Page 2

The Kumara Times. Published Every Evening. WEDNESDAY, JULY 9, 1884.

The ninth annual report of Mr John Smith, Inspector of Schools for "Westland, to the Secretary for Education, on the state of elementary education in the District of Westland, is now before us, and, though written in December last, it only comes to us in July by the roundabout process of a Parliamentary Report. A perusal of it would be highly gratifying to many parents in Kumara whose children attend the State Schools, and not less so to the head teacher, Mr Woodward, and his assistant teachers, through whose diligence and attentiveness, ability and tact in the management and education of the children under their care Kumara stands out prominently in the various comparative statements and records of the annual examination.

The number of schools under the control of the Westland Education Board during the past year has fallen from 38 to 36, owing to the closing of two small schools at Callaghan’s and Clonmore.

The report says that notwithstanding the unfortunate and deplorable dissensions that have occnrred during the past year in connection with the Education Board, it is gratifying to observe that the efficiency of the schools has been fully maintained, and the interests of the scholars do not appear to have suffered to any appreciable extent. The results of the year’s work, so far as was possible to gauge them, show a marked improvement on those of the previous year, as may be seen by the following summary :

The annexed table gives the results of the examination in elementary

science. The text-book prescribed for the year waa Foster’s Physiology. The fifth and sixth classes only were examined. The subject was undertaken at six schools, as against nine last year. It is much to be regretted that so important a school as Greymouth should have disappeared from this list, I recommend that Huxley’s Introductory Primer be adopted as the science textbook for the coming year. Standard V. Average Number Percentage examined, of Marks. Kumara 15 G 7 Hokitika 35 52 Kanieri 3 35 Cobden 6 37 Brunnerton ... 2 29 Goldsborough ... Standard VI. Average Number Percentage examined, of Marks. Kumara 12 82 Hokitika 20 80 Kanieri 4 52 Cobden 3 49 Brunnerton ... 2 38 Goldsborough ... 1 6

Yocal music is taught at three of the four principal schools, and I am at a loss to understand why Greymouth should be the exception, particularly since there are amongst the members of the staff several who possess considerable musical talent. As far as I am able to judge, this subject was most successfully tanght at Kumara. At Ross the singing was of the poorest description : so much so that I regard the time devoted to it during the past year as practically wasted.

So few schools took up drawing last year that I did not think it desirable to go to the expense of having copies prepared for the examination. I examined the drawing-books at the schools where the subject is taught, viz., Kumara, Kanieri, Blue Spur, Ross, and Woodstock, and found some very creditable work amongst them; and I consider that the order in which the schools are named indicates pretty accurately their relative efficiency in this respect.

Military drill is taught to the boys of the Ross and Kumara schools. It had been discontinued for some time at Greymouth, but was resumed, at my request, shortly before the Christmas vacation.

Instruction is writing is more powerfully and directly affected by the teacher’s example than any other. It may safely be asserted that, notwithstanding the universal employment of copy-books with printed head-lines, the writing of the scholars takes its character to a very great extent from that of the teacher. When the latter is invariably neat and careful in the writing he places before his scholars on the blackboard or in their exercise-books, that of the children generally corresponds in character, whilst slovenly scribbling in either case will as surely be reproduced and intensified. In every school there will of course be some children whose writing cannot be brought up to a satisfactory standard of excellence, and, with such exceptions, the handwriting of the paper work at the Hokitika, Kumara, Ross, Stafford, Paroa, Cobden, Donoghne, Upper Crossing, and Blue Spur, was, as it always has been with most of them, of excellent quality. In drawing maps of New Zealand, although each island is frequently very fairly drawn, the two, together are scarcely ever represented in their proper relative positions; the common error being the placing of one entirely to the north of the other. The mapping at Hokitika, Kumara, and Kanieri is far superior to that at most ot the other schools. A map of New Zealand for beginners is, in my opinion, much required, and might easily be prepared in the colony.

All the school buildings in the district, with the exception of a few erected within the last two years, are more or less in need of repair, and the condition of some of them is truly lamentable. The Kumar a and Greymouth schools especially are in a very discreditable condition. Unless some considerable amount of money is at once devoted to the repairing and painting of the buildings in this district, a very much heavier expense will be entailed upon the new Boards within a very short period. Twenty-two pupil teachers were examined this year at the schools in which they are employed. Of these, nine were examined for admission to the first (highest) class; two for admission to the second; seven to the third; and four to the fourth, or lowest class. All of these passed ; and four of the first, five of the third, and one of the fourth have passed with credit. Table C shows the marks gained by the different pupil-teachers in each subject of examination. I have made a slight alteration this year in the mode of representing the relative positions of the

candidates, as shown by the number of marks obtained. Last year the marks for Latin, which is an optional subject, were placed in a column by themselves, and the candidates were arranged according to the number of marks gained in the compulsory subjects only. This was to some extent unfair to those who took up the extra subject, as the genora] public seldom take the trouble to do more than glance at the totals, I have this year included the marks for Latin in the totals, but of course they are not included in the number necessary to secure a pass. Had the same plan been followed this year that was adopted in 1882, the order of merit would have been somewhat different. In the first class the first four names would have stood in the following order: 1, Voysey; 2, Reynolds; 3, Andrews ; 4, Ecclcsfield. In the third class the name now occupying the central position would have appeared last; and in the fourth, there being no subject to set against the needlework of the female candidate, Henry Smith is a few marks ahead of the girl who now occupies the first place.

Standard I. Examined. 353 Passed. 337 Per centage in 1883. 1882. 95 76 Standard IL 334 293 88 63 Standard III. 289 233 81 60 Standard 1Y. 200 219 84 69 Standard Y. 147 126 86 76 Standard VI. 80 56 70 93 1403 1264 80 09