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Genebal Statement of Eeceipts and Expenditure for the Year ending 31st December, 1891.

Receipts. £ s. d. Expenditure. £ s d To Balance at beginning of year on Building By Balance at beginning of year on BuildAccount 11,164 19 6 ing Account 3 508 1 0 Government grant for buildings 11,685 0 0 Office staff—Salaries 946 10 0 Subscriptions and donations for build- Clerical assistance 21 5 0 irl S s 10 0 0 Departmental contingencies 709 2 8 Other receipts for buildings— Inspectors' salaries 1,250 0 0 Proceeds of sale of Waipu Cavo School 8 0 0 Inspectors' travelling expenses 541 11 c Contractors'forfeited deposits 25 0 0 Examination of pupil-teachers 69 2 8 Government statutory capitation 67,811 7 6 Teachers' salaries and allowances (inScholarship grant 1,322 8 5 eluding rent, bonus, &c.) 55 881 18 8 Inspection subsidy 500 0 0 Incidental expenses of schools 5,935 1 10 Payments by School Commissioners 1,701 6 8 ScholarshipsSchool Committees—Towards cost of Paid to scholars 1,280 0 0 painting 175 3 8 Examination expenses ' 27 13 1 Bank of New South Wales—Royalty on School-buildings— coal taken from Kamo School New buildings 3 709 3 6 ground 44 15 1 Improvements of buildings .. 2,803 3 8 Furniture and appliances 765 18 8 Sites 145 7 9 Plans, supervision, and fees 494 12 5 Balance at end of year— On Building Account 5,301 13 0 On General Account 11,057 15 5 £94,448 0 10 £94,448 0 10 B. Udy, Chairman. Vincent E Eice, Secretary Examined and found correct.—James Edward Fitzgerald, Controller and Auditor-General.

TAEANAKI. Sic, — Education Board, New Plymouth, April, 1892. In the terms of "The Education Act, 1877," I have the honour to transmit the report of the Education Board for the year ending 31st December, 1891. Boaed.—At the annual election in March Messrs. H. Faull, T Kelly, and E. Olson were the retiring members for the year, the whole of whom were re-elected. The Board then consisted of Mr T Kelly (Chairman), Miss Heywood, Messrs. J Andrews, G. A. Adlam, E. G Bauchope, H. Faull, E Olson, D. Teed, and J Wade. The Board held twenty-four ordinary and one special meeting during the year The attendance of members has been as follows—viz., Mr Kelly, 25 , Miss Heywood, 25 ' Mr. Andrews, 25, Mr Adlam, 24 Mr Bauchope, 24, Mr Faull, 25 Mr Olson, 22 , Mr Teed, 17, and Mr Wade, 24. Schools.—There were forty schools open at the beginning of the year, and two opened during the year—viz., the Hurford Eoad and the Pungarehu Schools (the latter being an aided school). Three schools—viz., Ngaire, Bird Eoad, and Cardiff Eoad Schools—were also taken over from the Wanganui Education Board on the Ist October, 1891, ma*king the total schools now in operation in the district forty-five. Teachers. —The number of teachers in the employ of the Board at the end of 1891 was eighty, with twenty-four sewing-teachers, making a total of 104, classified as follows—viz. :— Males. Females. Total. Head teachers 30 14 44 Assistant teachers 4 6 10 Pupil-teachers 3 23 26 Sewing-teachers 24 24 37 67 104 Owing to the low average of salaries in this district, it is almost impossible to secure the services of good teachers for many of our small schools, or, if obtained for a time, the position is simply used as an aid in obtaining advancement in other districts. The higher salaries offered by other Education Boards have the effect of depriving this Board, year by year, of the best teachers in our small schools, and the constant changes that consequently occur in the staffs of many of our schools make satisfactory progress a matter of impossibility The Board carefully revised its estimated revenue and expenditure for the year with the object of increasing the salaries of teachers, but so closely did the expenditure trench on the revenue that only a sum of £100 was available, which was allocated in granting an allowance of £10 a year to teachers of schools where no residence is provided. As the most rigid economy is exercised in the Board's expenditure, it is hopeless to expect better results under present conditions. It is difficult, under the present system of Board administration under a permanent Act, to provide a remedy for the inequality of teachers' salaries, except by a special parliamentary grant in aid. This difficulty might, to a certain extent, be improved by increasing the area of the district, and by the Government remitting to the Board the rents received from education reserves within the Board s jurisdiction. The policy of the Provincial Governments in the past was to endow education by setting apart 5 per cent, of the waste lands. This policy has been continued by the Waste Lands Board under central administration. It appears to the Board only reasonable, under the adverse circumstances stated, that the rents locally received ought to be locally applied to remedy the great disadvantages under which the Board labours in endeavouring to supply to children in this district the same educational facilities which are easily obtained in other districts of the colony The Board, therefore, ventures to hope that this matter will receive the favourable consideration of the Government.

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