8.—4

Session 11. 1906. , NEW ZEALAND.

EDUCATION: SCHOOL FOR DEAF-MUTES (In continuation of E.-4, 1905.]

Presented to both Houses of the, General Assembly by Command of His Excellency.

No. 1. Extract from the Twenty-ninth Annual Report of the Minister for Education. The new building has been completed by the Public Works Department, and was occupied by the Director and the female pupils of the school on reopening in February after the midsummer vacation. The sum expended during the year upon the building was £1,325 16s. 3d. In 1904 the amount was £3,157 6s. 2d. Five boys and 3 girls left the school during the year; 1 girl died in December., 1905, whilst undergoing an operation, and 3 boys and 4 girls were admitted. At the end of the year the number in residence was 34 boys and 29 girls, 2 boys less than last year. The ordinary expenditure on the institution for the year 1905 was: Salaries of Director and teachers, £1,912 9s. 9d.; steward, matron, and servants, £739 9s. 6d.; rent, £140; housekeeping, £879 15s. 9d.; travelling-expenses (including transit of pupils), £168 3s. 7d.; school material and material for technical instruction, £13 13s. 6d.; general maintenance of buildings and furniture, £105 10s. 3d.; clothing, £37 2s. Id.; medical attendance and medicine, £153 Is. Bd.; water-supply, £11 3s. 6d.; sanitation, £15 7s. 6d.; boarding out of pupils, £282 3s. 7d.; sundries, £148 4s. : total expenditure, £4,606 4s. Bd. Deducting parents' contributions, £430 3s. 4d., the net expenditure was £4,176 Is. 4d. The amount expended in 1904 was £4,050 13s. 2d. Two deaf-mute children who, having received partial training on the manual or sign system,. were ineligible for admission to our own institution were maintained in the Victorian School for the Deaf at a cost of £100; and one child was under the charge of a private teacher in Auckland, to whom a fee of £20 was paid by the Department. None of these three pupils returned for instruction after the Christmas holidays. Mr. Gerit van Asch, who has occupied the position of Director of the institution since its establishment in 1880, retired on the 31st March last, and received the thanks of the Government for his faithful and valuable service.

No. 2. Report of the Inspector-General of Schools. The Hon. the Minister of Education. I have the honour to lay before you the reports of the Director and Medical Officer of the School" for Deaf-mutes. On the 31st March, 1906, the Director, Mr. G. van Asch, retired, and Mr. J. E. Stevens,. formerly first assistant, has been appointed to succeed him. It is twenty-six years since the institution was opened, with Mr. Van Asch in charge. During that time he has laboured assiduously and faithfully in the work of the institution, which is to render fit for ordinary society a whole community of unfortunate persons who, however great their natural ability, would, without skilled instruction, be quite undeveloped mentally. The colony was especially fortunate in having secured at the outset an expert who has not only done first-class work himself, but has trained a staff of teachers capable of carrying on the work so-