9

H.—lA

The amount voted for public libraries last year was £5,000, The sum of £6,074 os. 7d. shown in the summary under this head includes moneys which had not been distributed before the close of the previous year, and also the value of books which had been procured from the Home-Country by the Boards of Otago and Southland, with funds contributed by library committees. It was chiefly these contributions which raised the receipts for public libraries to £5,750 4s. 3d., as shown in Table E. The following summary shows the cost per scholar in the different education districts for Boards' management, school inspection (including examination of pupil-teachers),'maintenance of schools, and school-buildings respectively for the year 1879, calculated on the average daily attendances for the year. The gross amount of expenditure under each of these heads is shown in lines 2, 3, 4, and 5 of Table E.

TABLE G.—Expenditure per Scholar.

Table No. 3 of the Appendix furnishes a detailed statement of the expenditure of the different Boards on management and on school inspection, including the examination of pupil-teachers. The moneys expended by Boards on management are classified as follows : Staff, £6,022 2s. 2d.; allowances to members of Boards, £462 18s. 3d.; office rent, furniture, and repairs, £922 3s. 3d.; law expenses, £818 10s. 6d.; printing, £80116s.; advertising, £1,067 15s. 9d.; stationery, £581 19s. 4d.; fuel, light, and cleaning, £171 Bs. Bd.; sundries, £260 14s. lid.: total, £11,109 Bs. lOd. The Boards of Auckland, Hawke's Bay, Marlborough, and North Canterbury have made no payments to members. The payments under this head by the other districts range from £6, in Taranaki, to £144 7s. 3d., in Wanganui. No law expenses were incurred by the Boards of Marlborough and South Canterbury; the payments by the other Boards range from £2 25., in Taranaki, to £527 19s. Bd., in Wellington. The exceptionally large amount paid by the Wellington Board was due to the litigation which took place in the case of Mr. James Doherty. The figures in the columns headed " Printing," "Advertising," and "Stationery," in Table No. 3, show that the expenditure by Boards on these items respectively does not bear any strict proportion to the number of schools or teachers, or the average attendance in the several districts. It may be expected, as a rule, that the rate of expenditure per scholar on management, inspection, and some other purposes will be proportionally higher in the more sparsely-settled districts with a number of very small schools than in the more densely-peopled districts having a comparatively greater number of largely attended schools, but tho returns show that in some instances the rates of expenditure have not altogether followed any such rule, and that the business 2—H. la.

Education Districts. Number Nura^ er A^rage - of Daily cat,„~i„ Teachers, Attendfcsen.oo.ls, -r\ ' n ■ 1firq ' Decern- i ance ior | 10/y ' ber, 1879.! 1879. Cost per Scholar for the Year 1879, calculated on tne .verage Daily Attendance. School Suildings. Total. Current Expenditure. Management, Inspection. Maintenance. Total. Auckland Taranaki... Wanganui Wellington Hawke's Bay Marlborough Nelson ... North Canterbury South Canterbury Westland Otago Southland 204 27 52 42 33 15 58 120 29 33 146 58 387 39 88 124 63 25 90 356 77 76 359 89 10,167 860 2,577 3,944 1,807 808 2,815 11,449 2,056 2,189 13,879 3,168 s. d. 5 64 4 104 5 94 6 84 6 10f 4 10-1 4 7 2 44 6 44 0 4 1 8| 4 04 s. d. 2 84 . 5 9f 3 104 2 14 4 54 4 8| 2 4 2 4J 4 04 5 34 2 0} 3 14 £ s. d. 4 2 7* 3 17 8 3 18 If 3 15 64 4 7 6| 4 4 1 3 19 3 3 16 91 4 0 4 4 10 51 3 17 Hi 3 15 94 £ s. d. 4 10 10J 4 8 4J 4 11 9-J 4 4 4i 4 18 10} 4 13 8i 4 6 2 4, 1 64 4 10 8| 5 2 1 4 19 4 2 Hi £ s. d. 2 16 64 3 19 10 4 3 9| 3 10 34 6 17 4i 2 18 9i 2 1 10| 2 13 7 12 llf 1 3 2| 3 4 2 2 16 44 £ s. d. 7 7 4f 8 8 24 8 15 74 7 14 74 11 16 3 7 12 54 6 8 0J 6 2 94 12 3 84 6 5 3f 7 5 11 6 19 34 Totals for 1879 ... . Totals for 1878 ... 817 748 1,773 1,611 54,724 48,212 4 OJ 4 2| 2 9f 2 6| 4 0 94 3 19 54 4 7 8 4 6 2| 3 3 2 1 17 64 7 10 10 6 3 9 Totals for 1879 cat-" lated on average of roll-numbers at \- ends of four quarters—71,909 ,_ ': I 3 1 2 1| 3 15! .8 6 8i 2 8 1 5 14 194