E—l.

Office of the Department of Education, My Lord,— . Wellington, 19th August, 1908. 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, 1907. I have, &c, Geo. Fowlds. His Excellency the Right Hon. Baron Plunket, Governor of New Zealand.

EEPOET.

In this Report and its proper Appendix, in the- Inspector-General's Report (E.-1a) on the certificate and other examinations, the Reports of the Inspectors of Schools (E.-Ib), the Reports on the Training of Teachers (E.-lc), the Report on the Public-school Cadets (E.-1d), is contained all the information that is of public interest respect to the administration of " The Education Act, 1904," the Education Act Amendment Acts, 1905 and 1907, and " The Education Reserves Act, 1877," and the Amendment Acts thereto of 1882 and 1905, 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 the Deaf; 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; E.-14, Teachers' Superannuation; E.-15, Report of Inspector-General's Visit to Schools and other Educational Institutions in Europe and America.

Public Schools. The number of schools open at the end of 1907 was 1,963, or 42 more than at the end of 1906. In Table Al the schools are classified, as for 1906, according to the yearly average attendance. The classification is in accordance with the grades in Part I of the schedule to " The Education Act Amendment Act, 1905." The number of small schools with an average attendance not exceeding twenty shows a further increase of 42 for 1907, the number, which was 596 for 1906, was 638 for 1907. The number of pupils attending these schools has increased by 521 —namely from 7,344 to 7,865. During the year 1907, 76 schools were closed —viz., in Auckland, 14; Taranaki, 7; Wanganui, 6; Wellington, 3; Hawke's Bay, 12; Marlborough, 14; Nelson, 5; North Canterbury, 5; Otago, 3; Southland, 7. As was the case in previous years, several of. these schools, although reckoned as closed in their original form, were reopened in another; thus some were amalgamated, whilst others which had been joined as half-time schools became full-time schools. Including such reopened schools, the total number opened during the year was 118,

.i. in