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style of dress of the most serviceable material should be allowed. During one of my inspection journeys a request came from a boy to his friends for a six-guinea tailor-made suit and some linen collars not less than 2J in. in width. I have seen a girl engaged in cutting flax dressed in a blue silk blouse which she had got while at school. On the day of the examination of one school a cream voile dress which had been made to order by a dressmaker arrived for a girl whose parents live in a gumfields district. This kind of thing is happily not common to all the schools, but I am afraid that unless stern measures are taken to prevent it the " cult " will spread. Indeed, I hardly recognised in an overdressed young fop I met recently at a Maori gathering an ex-pupil of a school where dungaree trousers and bare feet were once de rigueur. The question is frequently raised as to the ultimate good of giving higher education to Maoris when in so many instances apparently no use is made of such education by those who have received it. It is, of course, no defence to say that one meets with not a few cases where the same may be said of Europeans, and it is possible that in the case of the M-aoris the number of instances is not so great as people are inclined to think, while there appears to be more excuse for them than for the pakeha. As often as it is possible to do so the Department admits as junior assistants in Native schools girls who have completed their course in a higher school, and I have formed a very high opinion of them as teachers. Indeed, with proper direction and encouragement from the head teacher they do exceedingly good work, following very faithfully the advice given them for improving their methods of teaching. It may be possible in the future to make use of these girls as teachers in small aided schools in places where the number of children does not warrant the erection of large buildings. Boys from the higher schools are gradually finding their way into various trades, some being already in mechanical or clerical divisions of the Government service. I frequently receive applications for employment, some of them quite pathetic in character, from girls and boys who have passed through the schools, and in most of the cases within my knowledge I can say that the " return to the mat," as it is sometimes unfeelingly termed, is the result not of deliberate choice but of the want of opportunity. European Children in Native Schools. During the year 418 children of European parents were attending Native schools. Their standard classification was — Standards VI and VII, 50; Standard V, 39; Standard IV, 55; Standard 111, 52; Standard 11, 60; Standard I, 36; Class P., 126. With the exception of two or three cases in which the objections appear to be rooted in purely racial prejudice, the parents of the children found nothing to object to, and several of them bear willing testimony to the efficient conduct of the schools both as to discipline and to the instruction given. The impression has been assiduously circulated in one district that the Native schools' standard of education ends with Standard IV, that the schools themselves are dirty, sanitary conveniences being conspicuous by their absence, and that there is danger of European children contracting contagious disease from the Maori children. The first two statements are so contrary to well-known truth that they are not worth further notice. In regard to the last, if this were so one would naturally expect to find a fatal record in the families of the teachers themselves, for their children constantly associate with the Maori children. I have never heard of any European children contracting disease in a Native school or " catching " anything other than what they commonly catch in all schools. A cry was raised during the year that the Maori children attending the Rotorua Public School were suffering from disease which proved contagious to the European children, and separation of the races was asked for on this account. Investigation showed, however, that the same disease was prevalent in the European schools hundreds of miles away where there were no Maori children, and that in the Native school two miles distant every one of the sixty-seven Maori children in attendance was thoroughly clean. Boys and girls of European parentage who have received their education in a Native school can be found occupying various positions all over the colony, some of them, indeed, having attained to distinction, and most of them have kindly regard towards the schools. Arrangements have been made in the revised Code for the representation of Europeans on the School Committees either by election, or, failing that, by appointment at the hands of the Minister. In Native schools where the number of European children is in the preponderating majority the Department makes no hesitation in transferring the school to the Board of Education. Two schools having attained this state are to be handed over this year— Puniho in Taranaki, and Waioweka near Opotiki. Maori Children in Board Schools. From returns supplied by the various Education Boards it appears that 3,988 Maori children were attending Board schools during 1907, but there is no information as to their standard classification. The regulations respecting scholarships or free places offered to such children have been slightly modified, the qualification necessary for such candidates for free places being now the certificate of proficiency in Standard VI. Seventeen certificates of competency and thirty of proficiency were gained during the year. Scholarships. In addition to the free places available at the various boarding-schools, the Department makes provision also for industrial, nursing, and University scholarships. During 1907 there, were seven Maori boys holding industrial scholarships apprenticed to various trades, the Department making a contribution during the first three years of their apprenticeship to assist them in obtaining board and providing clothing. Three of the boys are learning to be blacksmiths, two to be carpenters, one to be a saddler, and one an engineer. The results of