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in order to attend the college. Advantages not quite so great are also offered to other qualified candidates who have not been pupil-teachers. Others" again may be admitted for shorter or longer periods, although they may have been for some time engaged in the practice of their profession. The total cost of the four colleges when all are full and in working-order will be from £20,000 to £22,000 ; these figures, however, include the cost of teaching 1,600 to 1,800 children, whose instruction would otherwise have to be provided for. The grants for the instruction of teachers in the subjects of handwork recognised in "|school classes " under the manual and technical instruction regulations were renewed last year, and seem generally to have been wisely used by the Boards. It might, however, be seriously considered whether, now that so many of the teachers have been trained in wood-work and cookery, the time has not arrived for devoting the bulk of the grants to the encouragement of the teaching of elementary agriculture and of nature-study in its relation thereto. Such a step is needed both in the immediate interests of the children in the schools and as leading naturally to technical agricultural education after they have left the elementary schools to engage in farming pursuits. The amount provided during 1904 for the training of teachers was £12,966, made up as follows : Salaries of staffs of training-colleges (two), £3,509 ; allowances to students, £2,188; grants for special instruction in handwork, £1,853; grants for general purposes of training-colleges, £900 ; railway fares of teachers in training and instructors of training-classes established by Boards, £4,516. Military and Physical Drill. The Education Act provides that " in public schools provision shall be made for the instruction in military drill of all boys " ; and it is declared to be the duty of the Board in each district " to cause physical drill to be taught to all boys and girls over the age of eight years attending the public schools in the district." The number of children returned as receiving instruction in drill in the public schools of the colony at the end of the year was 119,624. The term " drill " here must be taken to include physical and disciplinary exercises. The report of the Officer Commanding the Publicschool Cadets forms an Appendix (E.-Id) to this report. There were on the 30th June, 1905, 246 cadet corps, with a strength 0f|12,524 members, equipped with the " model rifles " (dummies) which have been imported by the Department for purposes of drill, and with a percentage of miniature Martini-Henry rifles for target practice. The number of cadet companies in the several districts was as follows: Auckland, 52 ; Taranaki, 9 ; Wanganui, 26 ; Wellington, 30 ; Hawke's Bay, 32 ; Marlborough, 5 ; Nelson, 12 ; Grey, 7 ; Westland, 3 ; North Canterbury, 16 ; South Canterbury, 9 ; Otago, 37 ; Southland, 8 : total, 246. The number of battalions formed was 25. The number of models on issue to the Boards at the end of the year was 11,450, and of miniature rifles 900. At the end of the year the companies in the North and South Islands respectively competed for two challenge shields presented by the Government. The conditions were that the competing squad should consist of ten cadets, all belonging to the same company or detachment; each company to have seven shots at 100 yards (lying), 150 yards (sitting), and 200 yards (kneeling), the local used in each case. The North Island shield was won by the Terrace (Wellington) Cadet Company, with a score of 711, and the South Island shield by the Oamaru North Cadet Company, also with 711 out of a possible 840. Owing to the fact that most of the teachers now in the service of the Boards have received a course of training in military drill, the attendance at the special classes held for this purpose in the several districts has gradually declined, and the classes have accordingly been suspended for the present. If the students of the four training-colleges receive sufficient instruction in physical and military drill while attending the colleges it will probably be sufficient in future if, in addition to this provision, a small number of supplementary classes are held from time to time in various parts of the colony.