The Wairarapa Daily. SATURDAY, JULY 21, 1883. ANNUAL EDUCATION REPORT.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume 5, Issue 1436, 21 July 1883, Page 2

The Wairarapa Daily. SATURDAY, JULY 21, 1883. ANNUAL EDUCATION REPORT.

- ■»— ; — TiiKanniialreportoftheMinisterofEducation contains a hundred closely printed pages, which are, no doubt as interest ing to Inspectors and teachers as they are wearying to non-professional readers, We doubt whether any but experts have digested this voluminous Parliamentary paper, and if the Minister who produced it perused it, he has greater pluck and more- aUundarit leisure than we give him credit fori In referring to its contents we shall not attempt to reproduce the exact and painfully accurate statistical information with which it teems, but merfllv endeavor to give a rough general idea of the progress of our big education system. Our army of school children is nearly 90,000 strong, but leßS.than 70,000 represent the averago working attendance.' ! Six years ago there were but 40,000 so that thero has been an average annual increase of between 6 and 7 per. cent. The .ninety thousand children are, as a matter of course, all taught the three R's as soon as they old enough to tackle them, Grammar, geography, and history are instilled into about half of them. About one in five is trained in elementary science, and more than one-half aro taught drawing.' A small percentage of the sweet girl graduates go in for domestic economy. There are nearly a thousand public schoools intlie colony, and ovor t wo thousand teachers, About 200 schools are small onescontamingfrom ten to fifty pupils eaoh. The bulk of the schools, six hundred in number, range from fifty to a hundred pupils, and' the remaining hundred schools haveon their rolls from 100 to over 500 children. Nineteen contain over st)o children; but the schools Wellington"district has none of them; four belong to Auckland, oiie to Hawkes

Buy, six to Canterbury, and eight to Otago. Of the teaching staff there are about a thousand males and a similar number of female teachers,'one fourth; of the' total strength being pupil teachers. Salaries range from a nominal sum up to £SOO per annum, Half of the teachers earn less than £IOO a yeav, and the other moiety moio than this modest income, Tho avorage cost of teaohing each child is £4 3s fid, a sum which ouglit to give great results. About one-third of tho children on the rolls last year succeeded in making passes, which was somothing less than previous averages. An educational system can hardly be pronounced perfect under which the progress of only I one child out of three can be guaged. We share in the sentiment recently expressed by the Featherston School Committee, that the standards are as ■at present constituted, a little too diffi cult. Our schools turn out machine trained children with moro role than real knowledge. It is evident to tho most superficial observer for example,, that tho conditions for passes should not bo the same for girls as for boys. Parents for example may approve of their sons learning decimals and fractions, but they don't want their daughters to be versed in these arithmetical mysteries. The powers that be, , however, ordain that the feminine intellect shall be treated as if it wero a masculine brain, and so from a want of a little intelligent discrimination, the colony does not get valuo for all the.money spent on education. Boys and.girls are alike modelled to one machine pattern, and' nobody appears to ask whether tho shape they are worked into is the one best fitted to make them good colonists in their after lives.

The annual meeting of the subscribers of the Wairarapa Institute, which waa to havo been held on Thursday evening laßt, was again adjourned fur ono month. The • entertainment to he givou at the Institute, Greytown, on Monday ought to again bring a full home as several wellknown Masterton singers are to be present,

On our baok page will be found a "Trip to Bennett's Hill,"" Sowine Grass Seed," 11 An Immense Kauri" and miscellaneous paragraph.

Judgmoßts were given'for defendants in the cases Nathan v Mannering and Nathan v Telford, the costs being .£lO it and 4.618s respectively,

The report of the Scab Committeo will be found in another column, It recom mends the appointment of Mr John Drummond as a special inspector to cleun the North Wairarapa district. Mr G, W. Schroder announces a great clearing sale for Saturday next, the 29ih inst. In the meantime ho deuroß to state that all goods will be bold at low prices. There is a Church in Edinburgh which oun boast of a fact which is perhaps without a parallel in tho history of Christian Churches, viz., that it has only had two ministers during the last 100 years. Its present pastor is the Ret Mr Peddie, who has served it 54 years, 17 of which ho acted as colleague to his father who had been in the ministry of the samo congregation 62, making the total period of the ministry of father and son 116, the latter still continuing to officiate. Mr Smith has given notice of the following motion for 25th July" That this House will, on some futnro day, resolve itself into a Committee of the whole, to consider of an Addross to His Excellency the Gofernor, praying that he will recommend for appropriation this year the sum of £6ooofor public libraries," During the past quarter the withdrawals in the Post Office Savings Bank .exceed the deposita. This is not a healthy sic;n. " Struck Oil" will be performed !>y the Willmott Company in the Theatre It yal this evening. As this is positively tL last'appearance of this talented company in Masterton, and the piece aelectod is a sensational drama of the most popular character we trust to see a good house. By kind permission of Captain Donald, the guard will be formed by members of the Masterton Volunteers.

In our report of the R.M. Cuurt, Masterton, on Thursday last the case of Fulcher v John Vila should not have been reported, as it was settled out of Court MrT.-W. Shuto has asked us to thank on his behalf sixty-eight of the leading residents of Masterton, who have signed a requisition in his favor as loiter earlier for this (own. The Masterton Volunteers annual soiree took place last evening, and was, notwithstanding the unpropitious state uf tiie weather, an unqualified success in every, respeot, there being about GO couples present,! Tho theatre was tastefully decorated for the occasion, no pains being spared by the committee in the manner in which they carried out these arrangements. The music was supplied by the .Ooncordion Quadrille Band, The refreshment department, under the care of Mr E. 6. Bell, was everything that could be desired. The Wellington Guards team were present, and appeared lo thoroughly enjoy themselves, and judging irom the late hour that the dancing was kept up, high scoring will uot bo the rule to-day Mole trousers at 6s 6d at Hupp & Hare's. ' ■ .

All the year round flannel 103 per yard at the Emporium,

Cume and aoe ladies'boo'.a from 3s lid per pair 1 Ilapp&Haro. ,' Buy men's trousers and vestß at 9s lid. Emporium. Examine tweed suits at 22a Oil, Rapp & Hare.

/Men's hats from Is at Emporium. A fen braces leltat 6d per pair. Rapp & Hare.

For grocery at Wellington prices go tu ! Rapp & Hare.—[AbvT.] '

The Volunteer Soiree held last evening 'proV.od a .complete eucoess, and the corps and the public spent a moat enjoyable evening. The catering and efforts of our local band gave every satisfaction. Ou Satiirday next 6. W. Sohroder commences Ilia great'cloating sale, which it is needless to comment on, as it undoubtedly, uiiist bo really genuine clearing sale in Masterton this season. 1 — |Advt.] - If J. B. will call at Measrs Eapp & Hare's, Emporium, Masterton, he will hear of something to his advantage. , One of our numerous readers, being of an inquiring turn of mind, Rays that he has tried every drapery and clothing establishment in the Wairarapa for the purpose of finding out who keepi the beat biulT and sella the cheapest, He says he hus had considerable experience in the drapery trade, therefore considers himself a competent judge. He gives his opinion ih favor of L. J. Hooper & Co., of the Bon Marche Warehouse, who, he states, baa a larger and bettor stuck to choose from than any country store in New Zealand, and fit for any town in the colony.-—Adtt. Wells' "bough oh cobnb,"—A«k for Wells' " Rough on Corns, "7i. \ Quickrellof, complete, permanent cure. Corns, varts, bunions. Mows, Moss, & Co., Sydney, General Agents-,

In the rifle match Masterton v Wel> hii'uton Guards to day, the Masterton team won by Un points. , The Zealandia, with the inward San Francisco mail, which lett London on June 14th, arrived at Auckland late last night, three days before time table day. ,The,-Eotorua will leave Manukau by to; morrow morning's tide, and will call at New Plymouth, and unless weather interferes, be in Wellington no Monday afternoon in time to forward southern, riiails by the Te Anau. The Kotorua does not call at Nelson.

A Supplementary Gazette issued last night contains: —By-law No, 1 (Standing Orders), made by the Turatahi Carterton •Road Board, County of Wairarapa'Weßt. i There were four tenders received by the City Corporation lor the contract abandoned by Mr, McGrath for the Te Aio reclamation works, that of O'Malley and Pepperell, for £44,107 ISs 8d being accepted.

It was a cold, iVet, windy night on Friday, and in oonsequonce, the Wilmott combination had a poor houso at the Public Ball, Carterton. The pieces put on the boards were ".A kiss in the dark" and "Baby." Eaoh role was woll supported, and the Company, despite thb small audience, nere welt roceivod, They play " Colleen Bawn" at the same place un Monday evening. • The Taratabi Cemetery Trustees met at..tho Institute, Carterton, last night. The credit balance at tho bank was reported at £lO 10a 4d, aud it was rosolvod io cliise fence between the ten acres at present set apart for burial purposes, and 'jlio : remainder of the reserve, Messrs Bairstow and Smith being appointed a ouramittea to caary out tho Work,

After many viasifcudea of fortune, "ft lis!) has at last been found for...the Great Eastern, which; if it does .not fulfil the magnificent anticipations'of her designer, promises, at any rate,-to' be permanent and lucrative. She has been bought, it is stated' by a London paper, by a company interested in the American meat trade, who propose to oniploy her as a huge dead meat, station in one of the large ports on the south coast of England, For this purpose she is now being transformed into what is practically a floating refrigerator. The idea is to keep the meat frozen until it is required for sale, and i: is believed sho has been fouad peu 1 iarly adapted for this purpose.

A Syndicate formed in London has made, a contract for the purchase of 3,000,000 acres of land in Northern Texas for 10,000,000d015. The sellers are a Chicago Company, who got the land a year ago from the Texas Legislature on condition of building a state capital at Austin for 1,500,000 dols. According to the last census th e following is the population of some of tho nort-west Texas counties:—Yoakum, two persons; Terry, five; Lubbock, five; Lamb, four; Howard, seven ; Hoskley, five; Hale, three; Gaines, five; Dawson, seven; Cochran, five; Bailey, three; and Andrews, six,

Rouen on hats,"—clears out rata, mice, roaches, flies, ants, bed'bugs, beetles, ingeflts skunks, jack-rabbits, gophers, 7Jd, Drug. gistß, Moses, Moss & Co,, Sydney, General Agents,