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No. 2. The Inspector of Native Schools to the Inspector-General of Schools. Sir,— Wellington, 31st March, 1887. In accordance with your standing instructions I have the honour to send you my report on the condition of the Native schools of New Zealand during the year 1886-87. Number op Schools. Eighty schools have been in operation during the whole or some portion of the year—viz., sixtyeight fully-organized village schools, five schools of lower grade receiving subsidies from the Department, two half-time, and five boarding-schools. Of the boarding-schools three are connected with the Church of England, and two are under the control of the Eoman Catholic Church. Schools Opened, Eeopened, or Closed. As the result of negotiations extending over many years, schools have been opened at Tapapa and Te Waotu, in the Upper Waikato District. There is a satisfactory attendance at both of these schools, and there is good reason to hope that the perseverance of the Natives in asking for thes 6 schools will now take the form of a steady determination to make full use of the educational facilities that have been provided for the children of the district. Miss Haszard, eldest daughter of the late lamented master of Tarawera School, has charge of Te Waotu. Independently of other considerations, the appointment is a good one, because Miss Haszard had very long experience, and did much useful work while she was her father's colleague at Tarawera. Mr. Haszard held the opinion that, while what might be called the superstructure was really the part of a Native child's education which would, in the end, produce practical and tangible benefit to the pupil and credit to the teacher, the shortest and best way of eventually producing a satisfactory superstructure was to train the child's faculties of observing, comparing, and inferring at the earliest possible period of its education. Hence, for several years it was his practice to take almost entire charge of the younger pupils, and to leave to his daughter the work of building on the excellent foundations thus laid. The general results of this method of procedure were very good. A secondary consequence of the course followed is that Miss Haszard is well acquainted with the methods pursued by her father, and at the same time is well skilled in teaching the higher classes of a Native school. After a long interval following the outbreak of the Waikato war, something is being done for the education of the Maoris of the so-called King-country. A new school has been established at Kopua with favourable prospects of success. It may be hoped that before many years have passed by other schools will be opened in this part of New Zealand. At Waimamaku, Hokianga, after long delays, owing mainly to Native Land Court technicalities, a school has been opened. As the Natives are already far on the way towards civilisation, the success of the school is almost assured. The people of Karetu, in the Bay of Islands, have also long been distinguished for their industry and their appreciation of home-comfort; in these respects, indeed, they are hardly distinguishable from Europeans. It may be expected, therefore, that, although the number of Karetu Natives is small, they will be quite able to maintain a good attendance at the school which was opened in their settlement last June. Taugiteroria, on the Northern Wairoa, one of the oldest mission-stations in New Zealand, is the site of another new school. Owing probably to the abortive nature of an attempt made some ten years ago to found a school at Kaihu, thirty-five miles further down the river, the whole of this district has been much neglected : on the one hand the Natives, judging of Native schools by the specimen of them that they had seen, were not very anxious to have schools established in their midst; and on the other, the Government were very cautious about establishing schools in what had been proved to be an unpromising district. The new school, however, has been established under apparently favourable circumstances, and there is a very good chance of its succeeding. The reopening of the Poroti School has been successful beyond expectation. The Natives are showing a very praiseworthy interest in the school and its affairs. It may be hoped that, if the school can be kept going long enough to enable the Natives of the district to see how advantageous it is for them to have in their midst a European family, affording them a constant standard of European neatness, order, and home-comfort, and to have the means of securing for their children an education that will fit them to cope with the pakeha, who, as the most conservative of Maoris are beginning to find, can no longer be left out of account, they will be unwilling to part with their school and their teachers on any consideration. A half-time school, opened by the master of Whakarapa, at Lower Waihou, has been taken over by the Department. The work is to be carried on in a temporary building not far from the site of the old Lower Waihou School, which had to be closed on account of a severe fever epidemic and the temporary withdrawal of most of the Natives to Kaipara and other districts. Should the experiment that is now being made prove successful, it will be necessary to provide a suitable building here. The Natives belonging to the district are numerous, and there is little reason to doubt that they can, if they will, keep up a satisfactory attendance at both the schools. The volcanic eruption of last June caused the total destruction of one of our best schools, that at Wairoa, Lake Tarawera, which had for many years been a centre of civilising and other beneficial influences : the sad story of its ruin is still fresh in the minds of all New Zealanders, and there is no need to refer to it further. Work in the schools at Te Teko and Galatea was also brought to an end, temporarily, at all events, through the same disaster. An attempt has since been made to reopen Fort Galatea; but, unfortunately, the teacher's residence was destroyed by fire a few days after the reopening took place. It remains to be seen whether it will be desirable to rebuild the residence or not. There is no immediate prospect of its being possible to make another beginning at Te Teko, as the Te Teko Natives have gone away to Galatea, Whakatane, and other places. The only other, school closed during the year was that at Eiverton. There seemed to be no good reason for keeping this school open. The Natives in the district are, with very few exceptions, of mixed race (and more