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Board to the necessity of proceeding as soon as possible with the additions required — i.e., additional lecture and professors' rooms, as shown on the design furnished by the architect. I trust the Board will make arrangements for completing these buildings as soon as the funds of the College will allow. Museum. —Since the last meeting many valuable additions liave been made to the Natural History Department by contributions from various institutions and from private individuals. The instrument for registering the daily number of visitors to the Museum has been in position since the 18th June. The number registered since then is 5,200, being at the rate of 124,800 for the year. The Technological Department was opened on the 15 th February, the models received from Europe and America having been placed in position. The department contains models of steam-, water-, and gas-engines, bridges, ships, apparatus used in mining, drainage and irrgiation, models of roofs of buildings, models illustrating mechanical motions, metallurgical processes, manufactures of indiarubber, &c. I append a valuable statement in, detail, furnished by Professor Julius Yon Haast, Director of the Museum, showing the additions to the Museum during the past year. School of Art.- —Since the last annual meeting all the cases containing models, books, casts, &c, selected by Mr. Kennaway and Sir Phillip Cunliffe Owen in England have arrived, and are now in the School of Art, which was opened on the Ist March, under the master, Mr. D. Blair, formerly Examiner in Art at the South Kensington Museum. The school is held in the building formerly used for the Girls' High School. The requisite alterations were made and the rooms fitted up under the superintendence of the master. The necessity for the establishment of this school was shown immediately after it was opened by the very considerable number of students who attended the classes. The number attending the morning classes during the first term was 28, and the evening classes 63, and the attendance during the present or second term shows a considerable increase, being —morning 45, and evening 80. Of these, 28 students make buildings a speciality, 23 machinery, and 5 lithography, the remainder attending for general instruction. Instruction is also given to 42 pupils of the Boys' and 21 pupils of the Girls' High Schools. The master, finding the work of the school increasing, applied for assistance, and the Board, desirous of making the school thoroughly efficient, appointed Mr. G. H. Elliott, who holds a certificate from the National Art Training School, South Kensington. The Board of Education, wishing to have drawing taught to the pupils of the normal and district schools, made application to this Board requesting the services of the master of the School of Art in organizing a staff, and supervising the instruction to be given in these schools. Correspondence between the Boards has taken place, and there is every probability of a satisfactory arrangement being made, as it is the desire of this Board that the benefit to be derived from the School of Art should be as widely extended as possible. Boys' High School. —The school opened on the 18th May last with an attendance of 78 boys, which number increased at the second term to 90, and an assistant-master being required Mr. C. Chilton, 8.A., was appointed. At the next term the attendance at the school increased to 114, and Mr. G. Watson, 8.A., was engaged to teach in the afternoons. At the commencement of the present term the third master received the appointment of headmaster to the West Christchurch District School, and tendered his resignation to the Board, which resignation the Board accepted with regret at losing the services of a teacher so efficient. In consequenc of this resignation, Mr. Watson was appointed assistant-master, and Mr. Carrington, 8.A., was engaged to teach in the forenoon. The number of boys attending the school having increased to 121, another master was required, and Mr. Irvine was temporarily appointed. Instruction in drawing is given in the School of Art to the pupils of the Boys' High School whose parents wish them to attend ; the number at present in attendance being 42. In the early part of this year a library was opened at the Boys' High School for the use of the pupils ; founded partly by grant from the Board of Governors and partly by private subscriptions, the number of volumes being 450. Girls' High School. —The new building in Cranmer Square was opened at the commencement of the third term of 1881. During the past year 107 pupils attended the school; the number at present on the books being 74. The school was examined by Professors Brown and Cook at the end of 1881, and their report was very satisfactory. It was also inspected by the Inspector-General, the Bey. W. J. Habens, and his report thereon is as follows : — " Education Department, Wellington, 29th November, 1881. " I inspected this school on the 31st October. With the exception of the removal from the old building to a new one equally suitable and on a preferable site, there seems to have been no change of any consequence made during the year. I need, therefore, only refer to the very favourable opinion expressed in my former reports as to the organization of the school and the character of the work done in it. " Wm. Jas. Habens." As the land received for the endowment of this school is not of superior quality, there was considerable difficulty in leasing it on terms which would provide sufficient revenue in aid of the school fees ; the Board therefore w ras reluctantly obliged to make some alterations in the staff, and in some cases to reduce the salaries so as to bring the expenditure within the probable income. I have to state that the Board recognizes the zeal and efficiency of the teaching staff, and that this reduction of salary was in consequence of the limited means at the disposal of the Board. Public Library. —The number of books in the Library has been increased by 387 since the last annual meeting, namely, 115 for the reference and 272 for the circulating department; the number of volumes at present in the Library being 9,193 in the circulating and 6,486 in the reference department, or a total of 15,661. Number of subscribers, 644. School of Agriculture. —This school, which opened on the 9th July, 1880, with eight students, has increased so much that during the past year fifty-one students have received instruction, and no better proof of its being appreciated not only as a local but also as a colonial institution can be brought forward than by stating the districts from wheuce the students came : Auckland, 3 ; Gisborne, 1; Invercargili, 2 ; Napier, 3 ; Nelson, 2 ; Otago, 2 ; Poverty Bay, 2 ; Wanganui, 1 ; Wellington, 2 ; Westland, 1; Canterbury, 32. At the examination held in June, 1881, H. L. Ellis and