83

E.—l

Lawrence District High School.

English. —The whole paper was well answered, and there was very little misunderstanding of the most difficult parts of the text. It is evident that the subject has been taught with great thoroughness and skill. Latin. —The two pupils in Class I. read the work given in the table during the first nine months of the year. Owing to the removal of the families to Dunedin, they have become pupils of the Otago Boys' and Girls' High Schools, and were not examined. The lower classes showed a very good knowledge of the work done. The translation was excellent in the higher class, and good in the lower. French. —Grammar was excellent throughout, and translation ranged from very fair to very good. Only two pupils obtained less than 70 per cent, of the marks. Algebra. —This subject was very well known. Two-thirds of the pupils in each class gained full marks, whilst the rest gave in good papers. Geometry. —The merit of the papers ranged from good to excellent, most of them coming under the latter description. Trigonometry .—Owe pupil gained 75 and the other 81 per cent, of the marks. In connection with the work of Palmerston District High School, we must point out that a number of the pupils, who come by rail, are very late of arriving, w 7hile the increase in the number of subjects taught has made it more difficult to do good work in some of the most important branches of secondary education. The English, algebra, and Latin papers were all examined by Mr. Petrie : and the French, geometry, and trigonometry papers by Mr. Goyen. In all the district high schools increased attention has been given to English composition, but we do not find any text-book of the subject used by the teachers, or in the hands of the pupils. We have, &c, D. Petrie, ) T , The Secretary, Otago Education Board. P. Goyen, }• ms P ectors-

SOUTHLAND. Sir,— Education Office, Invercargill, 20th March, 1891. In pursuance of the provisions of section 102 of " The Education Act, 1877," I have the honour to submit herewith the usual report of this Board's proceedings for the year ending 31st December, 1890. The Board.—The annual election of three members to fill the vacancies caused by the retirement of Messrs. Bain, Baldey, and McLeod w 7as held in the month of March, and resulted in the re-election of the three gentlemen named, there being no others nominated. It is desirable that your attention should here be directed to what appears a defect in the Act, so far as it relates to the annual elections of members of Boards. There is no provision made for dispensing with the form of an election when the number of names received in nomination does not exceed the number of vacancies to be filled. There is thus entailed an amount of trouble in going through the form of an election w7hen no good purpose can be served by doing so. To prevent any doubt arising as to the legality of the election, this Board followed the ordinary practice of sending out notice to the School Committees of three names nominated, and asked that they should (as a matter of form) record their votes in the usual manner. It will be seen that all this trouble and expense to Boards and Committees might be obviated by the insertion of a short clause in the Act making provision for declaring the nominees duly elected in such cases,

Subject. Class. Numbre examined. Amount of Work done. English Latin I. I. 20 Macbeth (Chambers's Edition). Caesar, Books V. and VI.; Virgil, Book V.; Grammar and Composition. Principia Latina, Part II.; History, Book III.; Cassar, Book I., 40 chapters ; Smaller Latin Grammar. Principia Latina, Part I., 28 exercises; and 20 fables in Part II. Charles XII., Books IV. to VIII.; Grammar and Composition as in Dejardin's Class Book. Charles XII., Books I. and II.; Grammar and Composition, from Dejardin's Class Book. Dejardin's Class Book, 150 exercises; Beading, Le Chapeau de Paille and Les Souliers Verts. Todhunter's, to end of quadratics. Todhunter's, to end of simple problems. Todhunter's, to end of fractions. Euclid, Books I. to IV. and VI., with exercises on Book I. Euclid, Books I. to III., with exercises on Book I. Euclid, Book I. Hamblin Smith's, 111 pages. II. 7 French III. I. 5 7 II. 7 Algebra HI. 5 Geometry I. II. III. I. II. III. I. 8 6 6 2 7 5 2 Trigonometry