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adviser who is free from local prejudices and interests, and who is not overwhelmingly solicitous about the consequences to himself personally of any advice that he may offer. In Nelson the supplying of the Education Board with books and other school material has for some years been carried out by public tender. The outcome has been that during this period all the school material required has been delivered at the Board's office at about three-fourths of the English publishing price, and is issued to the several School Committees, on their requisition, at the same cost. Not only is the money-saving to the community very considerable, but an ample supply of carefully-selected and suitable books is always in stock, and the children are not left to the vagaries of possibly inexperienced or crochetty teachers in the choice of their reading matter. Although I am far from being an advocate for strict uniformity in school management, I think that there are some points in which a general conformity is desirable. Contrary to what might naturally have been expected, the town schools begin work much later than those in the country. I find that children who have two or three miles to trudge to school—frequently over bad roads— find no difficulty in presenting themselves at school at nine in the morning, while it seems a hard matter to get the town children together by half-past nine, although a large proportion of them live within ten minutes' walk of their school. But if, as is generally held nowadays, the value of the education given in our primary schools consists at least as much in the habits formed there as in the amount of literary instruction obtained, the opening of school at a late hour must have a mischievous effect upon the children. - A school should aim, as far as possible, at being a trainingground for the after-life by which it is immediately succeeded, and unless the habit of early rising and beginning the day's work betimes is formed in tender years, the change of habits that will inevitably be required when the school-days are over will prove exceedingly irksome to those who have for many years been mistrained in this respect. In all handicrafts, and in almost every other occupation, work begins long before half-past nine. The most reasonable school hours appear to be those which trench least upon the after-time of both teachers and taught—say between nine and twelve o'clock in the morning and between one and three in the afternoon. These hours are in vogue in scores of schools elsewhere, and in not a few in Marlborough, and I have not heard of any real inconvenience that has arisen from their adoption. This is a matter that might easily be amicably adjusted by consultation between the Board and the School Committees. I have gradually come to the conclusion that the weakest and most unsatisfactory part of our school work is that between a child's entering school and its passing the First Standard, a period varying between three and four years. During this time a well-taught child of average capacity ought to have mastered the ordinary difficulties of reading a simple narrative, should be able to write legibly in a copy-book, and to work easy sums in the four first rules of arithmetic. As much as this, as a fact, has been actually accomplished in a few good schools. But, unfortunately, the majority of teachers are satisfied if their scholars attain the bare minimum laid down in the meagre programme of the First Standard. And the meagreness of the minimum has much to answer for in this respect. In small schools especially, where all the work devolves upon a single teacher, he is under a strong temptation to bestow most of his pains on that section of his school where he can reap the harvest of passes which public opinion has somehow come to regard as the sole and sufficient test of all his labours. In larger schools other causes are at work, equally sure to retard the progress of the younger scholars. It is no disparagement to assistants and pupil-teachers, especially at the outset of their career, to say that the quality of their teaching is far inferior to that of the head teachers. No one expects from the raw apprentice the same kind of work that is demanded from the skilled and experienced craftsman. I must guard myself against being supposed to wish head teachers to force their scholars through the First Standard at too early an age. So long as the present requirements remain unaltered, if an average child passes the First Standard between its eighth and ninth years there is no reason to complain. Indeed, in several of the larger districts, such as Auckland and Otago, the average age exceeds nine years. I simply recommend teachers to spare no pains to carry their scholars much beyond the bare requirements of the regulations, and so to prepare their younger scholars that on passing the First Standard they may be half-way on towards tho work of the Second. There are few schools in which the utmost is made of the time of the young children who form so important a fraction of the school-rolls.. They are kept far too long droning before sheet lessons, instead of having books put into their hands a few months after entering school. And when, at last, they are intrusted with reading-books, these are not changed nearly often enough, in order to save sixpence, or possibly a little trouble; so that, instead of reading by sight, not a few of the younger scholars actually read mainly from memory, knowing pretty well by heart the contents of their well-thumbed little primers. Fresh books ought to be issued to the lower classes every six months, if the art of reading fluently is to be acquired within any reasonable time. In many cases teachers are guilty of the absurdity of not allowing their pupils to write in copybooks until they have passed the First Standard, for no better reason, apparently, than that the regulations exact only slate-writing at this stage. Hours are also wasted in pottering over writing figures on slates, or in repeating in chorus a few lines of the very indifferent verse that is manufactured for the use of young children. I must once more refer to the preposterous custom, now becoming increasingly prevalent, of publishing, with a flourish of trumpets, the results obtained in a school directly after the examination. This is usually, but not invariably, done by the teachers themselves, and naturally, only where schools are supposed to have done exceptionally well, and is objectionable for several reasons. It frequently presents a partial and distorted view of the case; ii is a temptation to futile and premature discussion ;it discounts whatever interest may be attached to tho annual report; and it is disrespectful to the Education Board, which, by every rule of official etiquette, is entitled to the earliest information as to the state of the schools under its control. Finding all remonstrance