E.—lb

Summary of Results for the Whole District.

Summary of Results for Roman Catholic Schools.

NELSON. Sir,— February, 1900. We have the honour to lay before you the following report on the Nelson public schools for the year 1899 :— One hundred and twenty-three schools were at work at the end of December, and all but four of these have been examined. Three of the exceptions were newly formed household schools, and one very small one was closed at the time of the Inspector's visit to that part of the district. Since last year's examination, household schools at Wairoa Gorge and Sandy Cove have been closed, the boys' and girls' schools at Wakefield have been amalgamated, and the three separate schools in Westport have been formed into one district high school. Our list would thus have been reduced by five had not ten others been added to it, viz.: Millerton, Fairdown, and eight household schools—Maitai, Rocky River, Marahau, Tukuroa, Silverstream, Berlin's, Buller Ferry, and Warwick Junction. The total number still continues to grow, although the number of children in the district has for the second year in succession decreased, the total number on the rolls at the end of the September quarter being 5,934 for the year 1899, 5,992 for 1898, and 6,069 for 1897. During the last six years this number has increased from 5,894 to 5,934, or only to the extent of fifty pupils, but the number of schools examined has increased from 101 to 119, or by eighteen. In the Nelson City schools the number on the roll for the same quarter is 1,120, or again lower by twenty-three than that recorded last year; and in Reefton it is 300, or twenty-nine lower; but in Westport (including the secondary class) it is 544, or higher by forty. Visits of inspection have been paid to all the district and most of the aided schools as well, or to a hundred in all, those unvisited, except three, being isolated household schools. In addition to the examination of the Board's schools we have again undertaken the following : St. Mary's Industrial Schools at Stoke and at Nelson, St. Mary's Parish School, St. Canice's at Westport, Sacred Heart School at Reefton, the Whakarewa Home and the Bishop's School, Nelson ; the total number of children represented being 643. We regret to have to report in almost the same words our complaint of last year about the unsatisfactory average attendance prevailing in this district. In spite of the regular but very slow improvement the district, as a whole, has been making of late years, we still, according to the last report of the Minister of Education, that for 1898, out of the thirteen educational districts of the colony, show the worst average attendance, South Canterbury being best with 86-2 per cent. The improvement spoken of is shown by the percentage that the average attendance bears to the weekly roll-number. This percentage was 775 in 1894 (our first year of office), 79-4 in 1895, 80-5 in 1896, 80-5 in 1897, 80-2 in 1898, and 81-1 in 1899, the highest previously recorded being 78-7 in 1891. Last year the average attendance in common with that of several other districts suffered severely from an epidemic of measles. This year the trouble is likely to prove of a more permanent character, owing to the extension of the small-fruit growing industry, com-

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Classes. Presented. Examined in Standards. Passed. Average Age of those that passed. Yrs. mos. Above Standard VI. ... Standard VI. V. IV. III. II. I. 60 157 223 301 267 246 275 570 152 210 291 259 234 267 128 158 207 202 230 264 14 3 13 5 12 6 11 0 9 11 8 6 Preparatory... Totals ... 2,099 1,413 1,189 11 7* * Mean of average age.

Standard Classes. Presented. Examined. I I Passed. Above Standard VI. Standard VI. V. „ IV „ III. II. I. Preparatory 4 11 21 21 31 28 26 17 11 21 21 31 27 24 9 19 21 31 27 24 Totals ... 159 135 131