E.—2

2

At the day-schools the roll numbers at the end of the year amounted to 2,346, to be compared with 2,161 at the end of 1885. The average attendance for the last quarter of 1886 was —boys 1,020; girls, 826: total, 1,846. The average attendance for the whole year has been considerably higher than this, the number being 2,020 ; and, as the mean of the four quarterly average roll numbers is 2,343, it follows that the average daily number of pupils in attendance is 86-2 per cent, of the number on the roll, a result which is not equalled in the public schools of any education district. More than 71 per cent. (1,667) of the children are pure Maori, or, if of mixed race, incline to the Maori. Of half-castes there are 243; of the remaining 436, some, including perhaps 150 children belonging to the teachers, are Europeans. About 3 per cent, of the whole are Maori children under 5 years old, and about 6 per cent, are over 15 ; 52 per cent, are between 5 and 10, and 39 per cent, between 10 and 15. At the examinations during the year there were 1,752 children present, and of these 275 passed in the First Standard, 246 in the Second, 112 in the Third, and 64 in the Fourth (the highest) Standard. The whole number of passes (697) is higher than the corresponding number (648) for the preceding year. The number of teachers in day-schools at the end of the year was as follows: 60 masters, with salaries ranging from ,£2lO to £60 ; 10 mistresses, £145 to £80 ; 26 assistant-mistresses, £35 to £20; and 30 sewing-mistresses, £20 each. Exclusive of the cost of new buildings, and of boarding-school expenses and apprenticeship, the expenditure for 1886 was £14,360 Bs. : £10,705 6s. 7d. was paid in teachers' salaries and allowances ; £336 16s. 2d. on removal of teachers; £845 in retiring allowances; £502 4s. 7d. on books and other school requisites; £275 9s. for prizes; £531 15s. Bd. for repairs and minor works; £765 Is. 6d. for inspection, superintendence, and travelling; £110 18s. Id. in aid of purchase of musical instruments and games, and in consideration of girls being allowed to reside in turn in teachers' families; and £287 16s. sd. on sundries, including sewing material to be accounted and paid for. A contribution of £69 18s. 4d. towards this expenditure was made from Native reserve funds. The outlay for boarding-school instruction and apprenticeship—partly by way of subsidy to schools, and partly by way of direct contribution for individual pupils—was £1,745 19s. 4rl. The expenditure on Native school buildings was £4,783 13s. 4d. Since the end of the year a new school has been opened at Eaukokore (at the eastern end of the Bay of Plenty), and another at Tokomaru (East Coast), where there has been no school in operation for the last few years. Buildings are now in course of erection for new schools at five places on the East Coast (Bangitukia, Tikitiki, Kawakawa, Tuparoa, and Wharekabika), at Te Matai (near Te Puke), at Taita (near Dargaville), and at Tokaanu (on Lake Taupo, near the south end). Places at which new buildings are wanted are Hiruharama (Open Bay), Waipiro, and Boto-iti. The old school at Boto-iti was lately destroyed by fire ; and it is proposed to remove the Akuaku school to Hiruharama, where there would be a larger attendance, and establish a side school in connection with it at Waipiro. At Te Ngaere (near Whangaroa) a school that has been closed for three years is about to be reopened. There are proposals for new schools in other places, but negotiations with respect to them have not yet reached the stage of certainty. The schools lately opened and those now approaching completion may be said to have satisfied nearly all urgent demands. Thanks are again due to the gentlemen who in their several districts exercise a local supervision over groups of schools. The Department wishes to acknowledge the valuable services rendered for several years past by Mr. Spencer yon Stunner, until lately Besident Magistrate at Hokianga, but now removed to a district where there are few Maori schools. Mr. Pope's report on the state of the schools (E.-2) will be laid before Parliament. His promised work on " The State," for the use of young people educated in the Native schools, is in the press, and will be ready for circulation in a few days. A very interesting reading book for Second and Third Standard Classes was written by him, and brought into use last year.