E.—6

11

The same facts may be presented in another form so as to show the percentage number of those who stay at a secondary school one, two, three, and four or more years respectively.

As the numbers in each case were taken for the last term of the year, it would be fair to conclude that the average secondary-school life in New Zealand is about 2-49 years, in New York 2-04 years, and in Chicago 2-09 years. Scholarships. —With further reference to the large variation in the value of Education Board scholarships, I make the following remarks : — Probably all the scholarships of £20 and upwards are. intended to meet the cost of board or possibly to aid in meeting it : if the latter be the case, children of less wealthy parents, especially if they belong to large families, may be placed at a disadvantage. Now, the lowest fee charged for board at a secondary school is £40 a year (see Table HI), and this amount does not seem unreasonable : it can hardly be expected that, generally speaking, a pupil can be boarded in a suitable private home, with facilities for individual study, for much less—almost certainly not, except with friends, for so little as £20 or £25 a year. Again, scholarships of £5 or less in value are probably intended to meet the cost of books and stationery ; but, except in a certain number of cases in which travelling-expenses have to be paid, the reasons for the establishment of the 254 scholarships between £5 and £20 in value arc not so clear : there may be an idea either that the State should bear part of the cost of maintenance of clever children attending a secondary school, or that the parents should be recompensed for the loss suffered through the withholding of the boy or girl from employment. No doubt the State gains by educating its citizens, the clever ones included, up to their full capacity ; and on other grounds, perhaps, the policy, which is sanctioned by long-established custom in New Zealand, might be plausibly defended : it may be remarked, however, that, outside the British Empire, even in the most democratic communities, such as Switzerland and the United States, such baits to parents would be looked upon as curiosities. In some cases the value of the scholarships has not been changed since the establishment of the system of free places in secondary schools ; yet it is evident that the holder of a scholarship of £10 with free tuition is in a very different position from the holder of a similar scholarship with £9 or £10 to pay in fees. Geo. Hogben, Inspector-General of Schools.

Length of Stay. New Zealand. New York. Chicago. cage •ne year 'wo years .. 'hree years 'our or more years .. 25-4 33-2 8-0 334 42-5 26-7 14-9 15-9 45-2 21-8 11-7 21-3 [(H)-(l KK)-(I 100-0 00-0 100-0 IIKIH