E.—b.

The total amount paid in salaries for the secondary departments of district high schools, including the special payments to head teachers, was £20,501 ; in 1907 it was £20,388. The professional qualifications of the secondary teachers of the Dominion are shown below :— Status of Secondary Teachers (Regular Staff only), December, 1908. District Secondary High Schools Schools. (Secondary Principals,— Departments). Graduates .. .. .. .. ..29 24 Holding certificates or other qualifications (excluding graduates) .. .. .. .. 1 42 Assistants, — (iraduates .. .. .. .. .. 142 68 Certificated (excluding graduates) .. .. ..11 37 Uncertificated .. .. .. .. ..34 .7 Total .. .. ... ..217 168 Further information in-regard to the roll, and staff, and salaries of secondary schools is given in Tables Jl and J2 ; and further information of the same kind for district high schools is contained in Tables Xl and K2. Free Secondary Education. At the end of 1908 the secondary schools giving free tuition to duly qualified pupils, and receiving grants therefor under the Act, were twenty-seven, as against twenty-six for the preceding year. The total number of pupils on the roll of these schools, exclusive of pupils in the lower departments of the schools, was 4,180, and out of this total, 2,747, or 66 per cent., were given free places under the regulations. The total annual payment at the rate paid for the last term of the year would be approximately £24,824 ; the approximate average cost to the Treasury was therefore £9 os. 9d. per pupil. In addition, free tuition was given to 145 others who were holders of scholarships or of exhibitions granted by these schools, or by endowed secondary schools not coming under the conditions for free places, making the total number of free places held at secondary schools 2,892, or 69 per cent, of the net roll above referred to. Further information in regard to the free places and scholarships held at secondary schools will be found in Table J3 of E.-6. Moreover, in reckoning the amount of free secondary education in the Dominion must be included the pupils in attendance at the secondary classes of district high schools, 2,142 in number, all but a comparatively small number of whom were free pupils, receiving free tuition at an average cost to the Government of £9 lis. sd. per pupil. There should be added also those receiving free education in Maori schools, 108 in number, and the holders of certain free places in technical schools, numbering 2,000. There is thus an approximate total of 7,142 pupils receiving free secondary education, exclusive of those holders of free places in technical schools who were art students, or were taking courses which may be more approximately described as technical rather than as secondary. The following table gives a summary of the various secondary free places referred to: — Free Places as in December, 1908. (i.) Secondary Schools, — Boys. (lirls. Total. (a.) Junior free pupils .. .. 1,083 839 1,922 (b.) Senior free pupils .. 479 346 825 Total .. 1,562 1,185 2,747 (ii.) District high schools .. .. .. 1,017 1,125 2,142 (iii.) Maori secondary schools.. .. .. 43 65 108 (iv.) Technical day-schools .. .. .. 1,096 904 2,000 Grand total .. .. 3,718 3,279 6,997 The following paragraph from last year's report is inserted here, with the necessary modifications, as an explanation of the conditions upon which Junior and Senior Free Places are obtained : —

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