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The Truant Officer's report summarised is : Thirty informations, twenty-nine convictions," one case dismissed. Fines, £4 ; costs (7 cases), £2 9s. i>7 7"*fc( '7 7 *| The roll-number of Standard VI in the public schools was the same as last year, namely, 181, of whom 178 were present at the annual visits. Ninety-three obtained certificates of proficiency, and eighteen gained certificates of competency. A somewhat higher percentage of marks will henceforth be necessary for proficiency, in accordance with a Gazette notice of last August. In the private schools eleven proficiency and five competency certificates were awarded. Probably forty pupils throughout the district will take advantage of the free places at the Marlborough High School. The classification of schools examined was : " Good," 10 ; " Satisfactory," 20 ; " fair," 16 ; " moderate," 14. This is the first year of the introduction of the new syllabus, hence probably the increased number of classes as " moderate." Ten of them are small schools, with an aggregate roll of 42. The number of pupils in the schools classed as " good " is largely in excess of that for 1904. The following is a general summary for the district: —

The staff is classified as follows : Head teachers —Certificated, 11. Assistants—Certificated, 10 ; uncertificated, 4 : total, 14. Sole teachers—Certificated, 11 ; uncertificated, 37 : total, 48. Totals— Certificated, 32 ; uncertificated, 41 : total, 73. There were also eight pupil-teachers at the end of the year. By " The Education Act Amendment Act, 1905," the salaries of pupil-teachers are increased, but it is not evident why less salary should still be given to them than to cadets in other branches of the public service. Their work is in every respect as arduous and as worthy. The criticism lessons instituted last year should cause more attention to be given to method and to the all-round training of these young people. Judging by the results of the last three years this can be greatly improved on. The defect may have been due to a lack of definiteness in the course. The programme set forth in the new regulations should assist in the advancement desired. After 1906, if a pupil-teacher at the termination of her engagement has not passed matriculation, she loses her chance of a studentship at the Training-college. The requirements in regard to scholarship are sufficiently moderate for one who will probably be twenty years of age, and as the studentship is worth £60 per annum, with University fees, it is well worth the striving for. Some Aspects of the New Education. —The curriculum of the Training-college includes attendance at the University College at such course of lectures in English and in such other subject or subjects as the principal shall approve for each student. In time to come it will be viewed as a necessary preliminary to teaching that the candidate should have attended a class in biology and in psychology. The former subject gives valuable information to the build and functioning of the human body, the latter is the science of mental growth. The child is a special instance of growth and development, and the student should be taught the chief facts underlying the principal stages of child-life. He should understand what is meant by development of organs and the observed relation of bodily development on the mind, on the imagination, on the ideals. A better knowledge on these points would go a long way to secure better results in the after-life of the pupils. The head of an infant is large and its brain soft and receptive ; he learns very much. By and by his body strengthens. He grows as a poppy grows. The poppy first swells in the bud, which, becoming heavy, droops on the stalk —then in the stalk, which, becoming strong, holds the head aloft. Similar onrushes of stimuli affect the human subject. As the poppy diverts its life-juice into the gorgeous raiment of the flower, so the next stage in the child (in adolescence) is to the imagination with its rainbowed dreaming, and the next towards intellectuality like the maturing of the poppy. Dr. Krohn puts the case in other words : " Mental development in the child occurs by stages—by periods. Just as the entire body is not growing at any one time so all the mental powers are not unfolding and growing at the same time. In bodily development growth settles for a while on some set of muscles, one set of organs, and then another, and another, until the entire body is developed. Likewise there is a nascent period for each mental faculty." Rosenkrantz summarises the case from the mental side : " In the development of the young the perceptive faculty is most active in the infant, the representative faculty (memory and imagination) in the child, and the thinking faculty in youth ; and thus we may distinguish an intuitive, an imaginative, and a logical epoch. Dialectically these stages|pass over into one another, not only does perception grow into representation, and representation into thinking, but

Classes. Number on Roll. Present at Inspector's Annual Visit. Average Age of Pupils in each Class. Standard VII VI V IV III II I Preparatory 37 181 200 252 268 241 239 495 33 178 196 245 262 233 233 453 Yrs. mos. 15 1 13 9 12 10 11 11 10 11 9 11 8 9 6 11 Totals ... 1,913 1,833 11 3* * Mean of average a| 'fi.