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In the authorised text-book of geography used in the school the situation of the City of Naples is described, and then the writer adds, " Near it are the ruins of Pompeii, once a favourite Soman watering-place." This reappears in the examination-paper, in answer to my question as to the locality of Naples, " Near it is the ruins of Pompie, once a famous Borne and watery place." History is often taught in connection with geography, and, as the subject of history will not reappear in this report this year, I will here give an extract from a history paper from the same school. The answer was from the class above Standard VI., and was to this effect: " Shakespeare was a great English poet, who lived in Elizabeth's reign. He wrote many famous plays, such as ' Elegy written in a Country Churchyard,' ' Moses at the Fair,' &c." As these answers are not exceptional in these subjects at the school in question, they will at least show how desirable it is that the teaching there in these subjects should be raised to the same degree of efficiency as in the other subjects. Before passing away from the topic of geography, I must express my regret that in many schools the geography of the British Islands is so little known. This was particularly the case at the Stafford School, although in some others acquaintance with this important section of geography is scarcely less defective. The subject in question forms part of the pass-work of Standard V., and it is certainly a branch of that work we can least afford to neglect. Only second to his knowledge of New Zealand should be a child's knowledge of the home of his fathers, the heart of the great Empire to which he belongs. Drawing.—l shall comment on one other " pass "-subject, and one only :it is that of drawing. This subject has laboured under special disadvantages this year, partly in consequence of the new and more elaborate programme of work already referred to having just come into force, so that teachers had first to ascertain for themselves what they were expected to teach—a task not without its difficulties —often, too, to instruct themselves in one or more branches of the art, for all have not had the opportunity of qualifying themselves previously; and also on account of the delay occasioned by the publication of a new series of drawing-books adapted to the revised syllabus. Under these circumstances, it would have been unreasonable, and, indeed, unauthorised, to insist at the annual examinations this year on the full requirements being complied with. My own practice.hag bee.n to " pass "in the subject every child who showed satisfactory skill in freehand drawing or any one branch of the art, provided the other requirements had received reasonable recognition in the work of the year, and this is all that my statistics of efficiency in this subject imply, although many schools have done more than this. Speaking generally, the schools throughout the district excel in freehand drawing, which is often bold, symmetrical, and neat, especially in the girls' drawings ; but in only a few schools is geometrical drawing, even the problems of Standard IV., really known. Even in Hokitika and Kumara the scholars of Standard IV. failed almost without exception in this subject. Possibly this may be due to the fact that, though the children have worked through the prescribed course, they have not yet gone through it sufficiently often to be able to recall the constructions on demand. I am not at all disposed, however, to despair of better results ultimately, as geometrical drawing is popular both with scholars and teachers, and the subject, I need hardly say, is one of the most practically useful on which boys, at all events, could be employed. As to the model drawing of Standard VI., the less said about it at the present stage the better. The first principles of the art have yet to be learnt :as yet parallel horizontals fail to vanish, or more often vanish at the wrong end; and the best thing I can do is to echo the advice given by the Director of the Art Department at Wellington, that teachers should provide themselves with a copy of the little work on model drawing by Nesbit and Brown. I should not be doing justice to the labours of the teachers, however, if I did not add that in many schools the Sixth Standard and the class above it had made some progress in the prescribed course of solid geometry. The school at Staffordtown had omitted this, it is true, and some other kinds of drawing as well, but there was some excuse for the omission, as plane geometry was found by the new teacher to be an unknown science in all the upper standards. Elementary Science. —The only "class"-subject on which I shall detain the Board is that of elementary science and object-lessons, with the present treatment of which in the schools I am not at all satisfied. Elementary science does not even appear on the time-tables of many of the smaller schools, and in most schools object-lessons seem to have degenerated into little more than a form. The regulations provide that the Inspector on examination-day shall be furnished with a list of the object-lessons during the year. In practice, however, this list is too often found to consist of half a dozen lessons only, whilst the names even of these frequently bear a suspicious resemblance to the headings of the reading-lessons. Such object-lessons as I have heard given on my visits of inspection have necessarily been given for the most part by the younger teachers, and, with some exceptions, these have not impressed me favourably. Too often they have been very meagre and unprofitable. The cause of this seems to me to be want of careful and thorough preparation over-night. The young teacher must study his. subject beforehand, until he has got up a real interest in it in his own mind, and not until then will he be able to interest and instruct his class on that particular subject. Equally important is it that a specimen of the object should be provided to show to the class, or at least an engraving of it, and, failing this or a blackboard sketch, it is not desirable to select the subject, as the lesson in that case can by no possibility be regarded as an object-lesson, whatever else it may be. In spite of the trouble which this branch of his work involves, no true teacher will willingly neglect it, or fail to see in it a means of educating and training the younger scholars for the study of elementary science later on. Lessons entirely original are best, but young teachers will find most valuable assistance in some recent text-books on the subject, such as " Longman's Object Lessons," by David Salmon. As to elementary science, it seems ungracious to complain of the way in which this is taught, knowing well, as I do, the efforts which many teachers have made this year to instruct their scholars in the course of agricultural science prescribed in the syllabus, and that in spite of the difficulty and, indeed, impossibility of obtaining the text-book desired. In the cases referred to good results