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The chief sources of income are : School fees, .£18,386 ; and current revenue from endowments, £24,894. The payments made by way of salary amount to £30,171. The reports and aecounts of the schools are printed in a separate paper (E.-9). Post Office Savings Banks. The Secretary to the Post Office has kindly furnished the following return of accounts opened by means of stamp-cards. The plan of depositing postagestamps was designed to encourage thrift among school children :—

Colonial Univebsity Keseeves. The Secretary to the Treasury supplies the following statement of the accumulated income derived from reserves made under the authority of "The University Endowment Act, 1868 : " In Canterbury, £971 Is. 4d.; in Westland, £150 12s. 6d. ; in Taranaki, £98 2s. 6d. This money is reserved to be applied. "in such manner as the General Assembly shall from time to time determine," to the purposes of higher education in the several districts in which the lands are situated..

Cieculae. Silt, — Education Department, Wellington, 24th June, 1890. I have the honour, by direction of the Minister of Education, to inform you that it has been represented to him that the parents of the children that attend the public schools are. commonly required to purchase a large number of school-books, and that the payment thus required of them in many cases amounts to the equivalent of a substantial fee, so that the promise of free education is practically unfulfilled. After making inquiry the Minister considers that there is ground for the complaint, and he believes that excessive requirements have arisen partly from the wide option afforded in the list of books set forth in the regulation made by Order in Council, and partly from the frequency of changes made or allowed by the Boards with respect to the selecting of books from that list. He is also of opinion that such books as are required to be used only in class, and need not be taken home, might reasonably be provided as part of the apparatus of the school. Books used in this way would last for years in a school under good discipline. The Minister would be glad to assist in bringing about a state of things in which a child removed from one school to another would not require a new set of books, and in which a book after an elder child had done with it could be passed on to a younger member of the same family. He therefore has it in contemplation to propose a revision of the regulation, in order that the number of authorised books may be considerably diminished. But before taking any decisive action in this direction he is desirous of ascertaining the views of the several Education Boards on the whole question to which this letter relates. I am therefore to ask you to be so good as to favour him at some early date with an expression of your opinion on the subject. The Chairman, I have, &c, Education Board, Wm. Jas. Habeks.

Postal District. Number of Accounts opened during Year. Number of Accounts open at End of Year. Amount at Credit at End of Year. Auckland Blenheim 3hristchurch Dunedin jtisbome jreymouth Hokitika [nvercargill Napier Nelson New Plymouth 3amaru .. rhames .. rimaru .. Wanganui Wellington Westport 35 3 10 14 13 2 5 116 ' 102 581 374 10 9 2 26 73 350 96 78 128 130 42 197 14 £ s. d. 95 15 5 89 0 3 725 15 8 107 13 1 1 10 6 8 18 5 0 9 0 24 18 5 46 7 10 739 17 8 24 8 0 197 18 1 104 11 9 162 0 3 62 17 10 72 8 4 9 0 4 2 9 15 3 5 2 Totals for 1890 Totals for 1889 124 92 2,328 2,490 2,473 10 10 2,347 10 10