THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. THURSDAY, JANUARY 11, 1906.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXVIII, Issue 7938, 11 January 1906, Page 4

THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. THURSDAY, JANUARY 11, 1906.

The Registrar-General recently issued a volume of statistics regarding education in the colony, which is full of interest, as a brief glance at some of the main features of the compilation will show. The first table deals with the number of schools, public and private of all descriptions, that come in any way under the notice of the Education Department. From this we learn that there were on December 31, 1904, 1785 primary sohoola in the oolony, employing 3718 teachers, 1416 males and 2302 females, and providing eduoation for between 125,000 and 135,000 children. The last figure is indefinite because the number on the roll and the nam ber

in attendance present a rather wide difference. Tbe nomber oa the roll at the beginning of the year was 125,150, and at the end 135,475, while the average attendance throughout the year was 116,506. The high schools, aided or endowed, numbered 27, with 4038 scholars and 189 teaobers, and the private schools 295 with 16,378 scholars and 858 teachers. It is a little curious that in the case of the private schools 724 of the teachers were females and only 134 males. The sexes of the scholars did not show anything like the same disparity as 6785 wero boys and 9593 were girls. Of course the Roman Catholic schools formed a very l«rge proportion of the private institutions. These numbered 149, with 455 teachers and 13,373 scholars. The ages of the scholars attending the primary schools are given in yearly stages from five years and under six years to over fifteen years. There wero no fewer than 10,507 children under six, 13,995 between six and seven, 15,537 between seven and eight, 15,524 between eight and nine, 15,457 between nine and ten, 15,669 between ten and eleven, 15,078 between eleven aud twelve, 14,447 between twelve and thirteen 11,248 between thirteen and fourteen, 5419 between fourteen and fifteen, and 2507 over fifteen. Apparently a considerable number of parents think that when a child has reached thirteen it is quite time he had flnisned his education. The 27 secondary schools were employing 180 regular and 66 visiting teachers, and were providing for 2443 boys and 1895 girls—numbers we would oertainly like to see doubled.