III

E.—l

TABLE A.—School Attendance.

It will be seen that the number of new admissions for the year was less by 3,088 than in the previous year, while the number of children leaving the schools was greater than in 1880. Very little weight attaches to these numbers, because many children are transferred from school to school during a year, and the attendance of many is so irregular that they come within the operation of the rule which requires that a child absent for a whole quarter shall, when the quarterly return is made up, be regarded as having left. In the first case the same child is counted both among those that have left and among those that have been admitted, and in the other case he is so counted if he return to school before the end of the year. The sum of the number at the beginning of the year (74,359) and the number admitted during the year (46,206) is 120,565; and as the whole population between five years and fifteen was estimated at 124,561 on the 31st December, 1880, and at 128,683 a year later, it follows that if some of the admissions and withdrawals were not attributable to the causes here assigned the number of individual children under instruction in the public schools during the year would be almost equal to the whole number of children of school-age in the colony. There is at present no means of ascertaining how many of those reported as withdrawn have been subsequently readmitted. The fair presumption is that the number is very great, that many children are grossly irregular in their attendance, and that undue advantage is taken of the unrestricted right of removal from one school to another. Of those on the rolls at the end of 1880, as many as 8,042 were struck off as not attending during the first quarter of 1881, and 37,005 (including 27 who for the purposes of this report are to be reckoned as having left, being under five years of age) have since been removed from the rolls, so that 45,047 (considerably more than half the number at any time on the rolls) have nominally left school in twelve months. The following table is interesting as showing an increase in the number of Maori and half-caste children attending the public schools, the increase being, however, chiefly in the attendance of half-castes. The increase might easily be made much larger but for the unwillingness of many parents of both races— European and Maori—to allow their children to be taught in schools equally open to them all. In some Maori settlements that are too small, and too near to public schools, to be regarded as entitled to have Native schools established in them, the children are growing up in ignorance, being either withheld or excluded from the

Education Districts. Number of Scholars belonging at Beginning of Year. Number Admitted during the Year. On Sch. )Ol-rolls. Number Number who Left belonging during at End of the Year. Year. Strict Average. Average Daily Attendance. Working Average. « S ni E S Fourth Quarter. Whole Year. Quarter. Year. Males. Females. Total. Luckland ... Paranaki ... (Vauganui... Wellington rfawke's Bay Harlborough felson Ifortli Canterbury ,., South Canterbury ... iVestland ... )tago Southland... '3,337 1,367 4,070 5,H4 2,831 1,041 3,456 14,858 3,248 2,974 i7,58i 4,45 2 9,995 1,183 2,625 4,220 L778 815 2,092 9,229 t,86i 1,011 8,948 2,449 7.5°2 841 2,207 3,217 1,423 535 1,486 8,040 ',578 1,053 7,255 1,868 i5, 83o 1,709 4,488 6,147 3,186 1.321 4,062 16,047 3.53' 2,932 19,274 5.033 11,962 1,156 3.431 4,8 [o 2,056 975 3,076 11,322 2,492 2,195 15,918 3,616 11,946 1,148 3.329 4,782 2>252 ! 9'3 \ 2,987 10,984 2,475 2.243 15,327 3,436 61,822 60,625 6,457 649 1,843 2,65.5 1,214 549 1,661 6,269 1,364 1,127 8,382 1,980 5,818 588 1,651 2,221 985 449 1,518 5,49' 1,249 I,H9 7.679 1,796 ■2,275 1.2.37 3,494 4,876 2,199 998 3,179 11,760 2,613 2,276 16,061 3.776 12,158 1,212 3,4'5 4,867 2,348 936 3,082 11,501 2,597 2,324 15.589 3.706 77'4 73'8 76"2 78-4 74-2 75'S 76-5 72'O 72-1 76'! 80-3 75'6 Totals for 1881.,. Totals for 1880... 74,359 68,124 46,206 49,294 37,005 35,o '7 83,560 82,401 63,009 62,946 34,'5O 33,88o 3O,594 30,527 64,744 64,407 63,735 62,234 76-4 766 Increase in year,.. 6,235 - 3,088 t,988 i,i59 63 1,'97 270 (>7 337 i.5°i Totals for 1877... 55,688 4i,773 40.837 Increase in4jears 27,872 22,971 22,898 Average yearly increase ' ... 6,968 5,743 5,725