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No. 3. The Secbetary, Wellington College, to the Hon. the Minister of Education. Wellington Girls' High School, Secretary's Office, 14th July, 1883. The Board of Governors of Wellington College have the honour to report, for the information of the Hon. the Minister of Education, that, having obtained assistance from Government by a vote of £675, passed in the session of 1882, they were enabled to open the Girls' High School at the beginning of this year. Miss Hamilton, lately assistant-teacher at the Girls' High School, Christchurch, was appointed lady principal, and Mr. Innes, M.A. of the New Zealand University, and Miss M. Eichmond, of Newnham Hall College, assistants; and the school opened with sixty pupils. Such an immediate success, which was far beyond the expectations of the Board, has proved that the school supplies a want which was greatly felt. The numbers have since increased; there are now eighty-three pupils on the roll, and the Governors have found it necessary to appoint an additional teacher. Under these circumstances the Board feel it their duty to report that the work of the school is at present carried on, under great difficulties, in temporary premises, which were rented for the purpose, under the impression that there would not be more than forty to fifty pupils. The building, the only one at all suitable which the Board could obtain, and in adapting which the Board had to spend £250, contains but four class-rooms, having a superficial area of 1,433 feet, and cubic contents of 18,632 feet, and two small rooms, each 12 feet by 8 feet, one the teachers' room, the other used as a music-room. Such accommodation, it will be seen, is inadequate, being less than what is considered necessary for maintaining health and energy in both pupils and teachers, and makes it difficult and unsatisfactory for the Governors to meet the applications, which are constantly coming in, to receive more pupils; and steps should be taken at once to erect suitable buildings. From experience in other places, it would be desirable to erect accommodation for boarders in the vicinity of such new buildings, so as to provide for scholars from the country districts. For such a work as this the Governors have no funds, the only reserve set apart for the Girls' High School being at present unproductive, as it will probably be for some years to come, consisting as it does of bush land in the Mangaone Block; and, as pointed out in a report sent in by the Board, dated the 16th May, 1882, the Governors, though given by the Act which authorized the setting-apart of this reserve the power to mortgage the land for the purpose of erecting a building, are precluded from doing so by the restrictions put upon them by the same Act. The only site which the Governors are aware of as available for the Girls' High School is a portion of the College Eeserve, but it might perhaps be necessary to make it quite clear whether the Governors have power so to use the reserve. Of the 83 pupils pupils at present attending the school, the whole are taught English grammar, history, geography, and arithmetic, and in other subjects the following numbers are taught; French, 77 ; Latin, 40 ; German, 3; algebra, 20 ; Euclid, 14 ; science, 60 ; drawing, 15 ; instrumental music, 25 ; class-singing, 81. Charles P. Powles, The Hon. the Minister of Education. Secretary.

Authority : G-eobge Didsbuey, Government Printer, Wellington.—lBB3.

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