E.—l

III

EEPOET.

Office of the Department of Education, Wellington, 12th September, 1906. My Lord,— I have the honour, in accordance with the provisions of " The Education Act, 1904," to submit to Your Excellency the following report upon the progress and condition of public education in New Zealand during the year ending the 31st December, 1905. I have, &c, GrEO. FoWLDS. His Excellency the Eight Hon. Baron Plunket, Governor of New Zealand.

In this Report and its proper Appendix, in the Inspector-G-eneraPs Report (E.-1a) on the certificate and other examinations, the Reports of the Inspectors of Schools (E.-1b), a Report on the Training of Teachers (E.-lc), and the Report on the Organization of the Public-school Cadets (E.-1d) is contained all the information that is of public interest with respect to the administration of " The Education Act, 1904," " The Education Act Amendment Act, 1905," and " The Education Reserves Act, 1877," and also all the principal statistics relating to matters which are more fully dealt with in separate papers, as follows : E.-2, Native Schools ; E.-3, Industrial Schools ; E.-3A, Costley Training Institution ; E.-4, School for Deaf-mutes ; E.-5, Manual and Technical Instruction; E.-6, New Zealand University; E.-7, University of Otago ; E.-8, Canterbury College ; E.-9, Auckland University College ; E.-10, Victoria College ; E.-11, Canterbury Agricultural College ; E.-12, Secondary Education ; E.-13, Public Libraries. Pupils in Public Schools. In the schools throughout the colony the total average attendance, which in 1904 showed an increase of 3,459 over the previous year's return, rosejin 1905 to 120,265, a number which exceeds the total for 1904 by 3,759. The increase for the year thus shown is greater than any occurring since the year 1894. There has been a small increase in attendance throughout the year ; a noticeable feature is that the falling-ofl during the second and third quarters of the year, due chiefly to the severity of the winter weather, has almost disappeared. The variation between the lowest and highest total attendance for the quarters of 1905 was only 796, as against 2,127 for the previous year. The attendance for the first quarter was 120,281 ; for the second, 120,126 ; for the third, 119,929; and for the fourth, 120,725.