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salaries than this institution can afford to give them. Anyway, this state of matters is greatly to be regretted. I should think that it would be advantageous to reduce the staff somewhat, and to give the masters of, the Lower School more boys and higher salaries. In a primary school a good master will manage forty or fifty advanced pupils very comfortably It would probably be possible to get three masters, well used to collective teaching, to take charge of a hundred boys, and to teach them very effectively This would leave about thirty boys to be attended to by two senior masters. If some such arrangement could be made I feel sure that any little imperfections in the classification that would result would be more than compensated for by the advantage of permanently retaining the services of good men, thoroughly acquainted with the pupils and with the working of the school. The remarks made in my report on the Girls' High School with regard to the influence of the annual examinations on the work of the school are applicable to this school also, to a certain extent. Boys, however, are less likely than girls to be injured by overwork, for two reasons they are physically stronger, and they protect themselves in some degree by insisting, in ways of their'own, on having sufficient time allowed them for cricket, football, and other recreations. I have, &c, The Secretary for Education. James H. Pope.

CHBISTCHUBCH GIELS' HIGH SCHOOL. 1. Statement of Esceipts and Expenditube for the Year ending 31st December, 1883. [Account furnished by the Eegistrar of Canterbury College.] Receipts. & s. d. Expenditure. £ s. a Balance, Ist January, 1883 08 13 7 Salaries 1,054 12 7 Kent o£ reserves 232 0 C j Allowance to late Lady Principal '123 0 0 Interest on loans 247 9 8 ! Insurance , . . 13 10 0 Investment J-acre section 54 0 0 Kent of gymnasium . 35 0 0 School fees . 1,013 5 1 | Eont of ground . 54 0 0 Grant from School Commissioners 200 0 0 Solicitor's fees 4 4 0 Interest . 14 13 10 Hire of chairs . . C 5 0 Gas-fittings 4 10 0 Examiners' foes 71 8 o Bates .. .. 40 1 11 Incidentals 194 n 4 Contribution to Registrar's office expenses CO 0 0 Contribution to School of Art .. 14 11 8 I Balance 148 8 2 £1,830 2 8 £l!s30 2 8 Balance, Ist January, 1884 . £148 8 2 This statement has been extracted from the audited accounts of Canterbury College.

2. Bepokt of the Examiner in English Histoet and Geogeaphy. Sib, — I have the honour to submit my report for 1883 on the Girls' High School in English history and geography English I have this year divided into composition, grammar, and literature, and intend to five a separate report on each, as I consider English composition too important to be massed with grammar, whilst English literature is taught through only a part of the school. In each subject I set a three hours' paper, with an additional paper in two subjects for the Upper Sixth. For the two lowest classes (Glass I. and Class II.) I set the same papers in all the subjects, as they were taught together, and in the results I have accordingly considered them as a single class. Last year they were taught separately, and did different work, and were counted in the results as two classes. The Sixth or highest class, on the other hand, I have taken as two, inasmuch as the Upper Sixth has done all the work set for the Junior Scholarship examination, the Lower Sixth only about three-fourths of it. In all, seventy-six girls have been examined in the subjects this year, as against seventy-two last year In English, the school taken as a whole has reached the very high percentage of 58 (1 per cent, beyond the last year's average, if all the marks for reading be omitted from the percentages of the two highest classes—an omission that reduces the general percentage considerably), and 50 per cent. I consider a high average of marks for a good secondary school. Some idea of the high standard of education which this means may be obtained by comparing it with the average of the eight best in English in the University Junior or entrance Scholarship examination for this examination the verybest pupils of all the best secondary schools in New Zealand enter, and the highest average obtained by the eight best in English for the last five or six years has been 57-| per cent. But a more exact comparison will be found in the work of the Sixth Class, for which I set papers of the same scope and difficulty as are usually sot for Junior Scholarships. In this class I examined eight, and the average of the work of these eight in English composition, grammar, and literature was 71 per cent., i.e., 13-|- per cent, beyond the highest average obtained by the best eight that have ever competed in the University Junior Scholarship examination. Before 13nade these percentages and comparisons, I was convinced I had rarely read pa/pers equal to those of the Upper Sixth even amongst the best of my own students, so accurate and wide was the work and still more so thoughtful and intelligent was it. And that these results were not obtained by any undue proportion of the time being devoted to English is evident from the fact that four and a half hours is the time allotted per week to it.