E.—l

XII

The payments "made to Education Boards out of the proceeds from education reserves amounted in 1898 to £38,424 3s. lOd. Sums so paid over do not, however, go to increase the revenues of the respective Boards, as equal amounts are deducted from the capitation grants due to the Boards. The payments for secondary education from reserves under the control of the School Commissioners were £3,024 Is. 3d. Native Schools. The number of Native village schools in full working order at the end of 1898 was eighty, or six more than at the end of the previous year. The number of children on the roll, 2,972, in December, 1898, shows an increase of 108 during the year; and the average weekly number on the roll during 1898 was 3,056, or 101 more than for 1897. The strict average attendance showed an increase of 50, and reached 2,341 —that is, a little over 76J percent, of the average roll-number. One school, that at Opanaki, was transferred to the Auckland Board ; a small public school near at hand, without a proper abode, was combined with the Native school, this being made easy by the fact that the Maori children of the district had enough knowledge of English to benefit by the lessons in a public school. Seven new schools were opened—namely, Te Kuiti, on the main line of railway from Auckland ; Te Kotukutuku, near Tauranga ; Koriniti (now renamed Pamoana), Wanganui Biver; Whakarara, near Whangaroa; Karioi, between Taupo and. Wanganui; Nuhaka, near the Mahia Peninsula; and a subsidised school at Whangarae, Croiselles Harbour, on the east side" of Tasman Bay. Since the beginning of 1899 a new school has been opened at Waimana, near Ohiwa, Bay of Plenty; the schools have been reopened at Whangape, north of Hokianga; at Otamatea, Kaipara ; and at Peria, Mangonui; and the schools at Karikari and Galatea have been removed to Papamoa and Awangararanui. There are about twenty-six applications for the opening of new schools ; of these proposed schools, one will be opened soon, and probably about five more before the end of the year; the rest are cases which are still under consideration, or in which doubt exists as to the need for a school, or as to the support a school would receive if it were established; or cases in which the obstacles to the establishment of a school remain still unremoved. It is worthy of note that in some districts in which anti-European feeling was formerly very strong the desire for education is beginning to take hold of the people, and not only are the schools that are already established appreciated, but proposals are being made for new schools. As examples of this promising development might be mentioned the schools set up at Bakaumanga, on the Waikato Biver; at Te Kuiti, in the King-country; and at Kawhia, near the landing-place of the great Tainui canoe; and the school asked for at Parawera, near Kihikihi, formerly King Tawhiao's settlement. Similarly we might refer to the Tuhoe country, where progress on the whole has been satisfactory. On the other hand, as pointed out by the Inspector of Native Schools, the extensive district connected with Parihaka is still closed to us. At the two boarding-schools for Maori boys there were, at the end of 1898, 117 boys, of whom 25 were Government pupils; and there was a like number (117) at the girls' boarding-schools, 53 being Government pupils. The number of industrial scholarships in force at the close of the year was seven, the holders being apprenticed, three to saddlers, one to a blacksmith, one to a carpenter, one to a coachbuilder, and one to a farmer. Two girls were holders of hospitalnursing scholarships; one Maori youth is going through his university course at Canterbury College. Since the beginning of 1899, two former pupils of Te Aute have commenced their medical course at the University of Otago. Interesting details in reference to the Te Makarini scholarships are to be found in Mr. Pope's report (Native Schools, E.-2). Sixty-two out of the eighty schools in operation on 31st December, 1898, were under the charge of masters, and eighteen under mistresses; there were besides 63 assistants, and ten sewing-mistresses. The salaries paid to the headteachers range from £100 to £248, and those for assistants and sewing-mistresses from £7 to £50.