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9

" Latin " involves in the corresponding case. The following syllabus of examination for Form VI. will show what is meant, and will give a very good idea of the ultimate aims of this excellent institution:— English. —Shakespeare : Eichard 11., Act 111., Scenes 1, 2, and part of 3. Paraphrase, parsing, analysis, and composition. Arithmetic.—Vulgar and decimal fractions, practice and proportion, square root, simple interest, and percentages. Algebra.—To quadratics (as in Todhunter). Euclid. —Books I. and 11. Mensuration.—Surfaces, rectangle, trapezium, trapezoid, circle, and triangle. Geography.-—Detailed geography of the United States and Australasia (including Polynesia), with memory-maps. Science. —Primer of Physiology (the whole), Health for the Maori (the whole). Latin (for Seniors). —Caesar, Book 1., Chapters 1.-XXV.; Grammar as in Smith's Principia, Part I.; translation of easy English sentences into Latin. Previous experience of this school had shown that moderately easy papers are nearly useless for testing the powers of the boys—on one occasion nearly every boy in the class obtained 100 per cent, from such a paper—and therefore care was taken to make all the papers decidedly stiff. Nevertheless the following were the final percentages obtained: 80, 71, 68, 65, 61, 52, 48, 43, 41. When it is considered that seven or eight years ago several of these boys knew hardly a word of English, these results must be considered as surprising as they are satisfactory. Of course, success in the examination work in the other classes is not so striking. The boys in those classes have not yet obtained the full power of showing in a foreign language what the amount of their intellectual attainments actually is. Still, in Form V., with papers identical in many cases with those set for Form VI., the following very respectable percentages were obtained : 52, 51, 46, 46, 45, 42, 39, 38, 28. Next year, unless the character of the school changes, these boys will do the same amount and kind of work that have been done this year in the highest form. Similar remarks would hold good with regard to the rest of the school: a first-form boy is "but a sixth-form boy in embryo, and if he remains here long enough he is sure to be subjected to processes that will gradually transform him into what only few Europeans would have any right to consider their intellectual inferior. Here, as at the other boarding-schools, the domestic arrangements leave little to be desired. The Te Makarini Scholarships examinations were held, as usual, in the middle of December. Two ordinary scholarships were awarded to Anaru and Wetini te Akau, both of Te Aute. Peter Piper, of Rapaki Village School, came very close to the second of these two candidates. These scholarships, which were instituted and are maintained as a token of the goodwill of the late Sir Donald McLean towards the Maori race, and to help to promote the welfare of the Maoris, have a beneficial effect on the best village schools, as affording a standard of possible attainment for the brightest pupils in their schools. Miscellaneous. Expenditure. —A statement of the expenditure incurred in connection with Native schools, and of the way in which this expenditure has been distributed, will be found in Tables Nos. 1 and 2 of the Appendix. Of the total net Government expenditure on Native schools, £21,064 ss. 4d., the sum of £14,290 9s. Bd. was paid for salaries and allowances, inspection, general school requisites, travelling, and other ordinary expenditure in connection with village schools ; the remainder defrayed the cost of boarding-schools, building, fencing, and furniture, and of the school at the Chatham Islands. Table No. 3 gives the ages of the children on the books of the Native village schools and subsidised schools on the 31st of December, 1885. The percentages are : Children under five years of age, 3-11 per cent.; five and under ten, 52 per cent.; ten and under fifteen, 38-92 per cent. ; and fifteen years and upwards, 5-97 per cent. The few children under five years of age are all Maoris, who are allowed to attend school early because experience shows that, other things being equal, the sooner a Maori child begins to learn English the more completely will he master it. Table No. 4 gives statistics of attendance during the year. The following table gives the working average of children attending Native schools during the past seven years, and the average of the last quarter of 1879 :— Average of last quarter of 1879 ... ... ... ... ... 1,072 Working average of 1880 ... ... ... ... ... 1,239-75 1881 ... ... ... ... ... 1,562-25 1882 ... ... ... ... ... 1,648-25 1883 1,583-25 1884 1,811-50 1885 ... ... ... ... ... 1,831-83 1886 ... ... ... ... ... 2,019-73 Table No. 5 classifies the children attending Native schools with reference to the race to which they belong. The following table states results derived from this and similar tables of previous years:—

2—E. 2.

1880. 1881. 1882. 1883. 1884. 1885. 1886. ilaori and between Maori and half-caste rlalf-caste European and between half-caste and European 76-46 9-61 13-93 76-77 10-10 13-13 74-16 10-28 15-56 71-81 10-30 17-89 72-69 9-70 17-61 71-13 10-50 18-37 71-06 10-36 18-58