fl.— 5

XXXII

NORTH CANTERBURY. Extract prom the Report of the Education Board. A further advance has to bo recorded in the number of manual and technical classes held during the year, also in the number of subjects of instruction. School classes in oookery, laundry-work, and woodwork have been continued at the Christchurch centres with excellent results. Compared with the previous year as a whole, a considerable increase in the number of pupils in attendance Las taken place, although for the latter period of 1910 an undue faUing-off is noticed, especially marked in the case of certain schools. The Board has already agreed that its Inspectors shall give due weight to manual training when awarding certificates of proficiency. With the completion of the centre at Sydenham, it will be possible to make more satisfactory arrangements for the several schools, when the Board will expect all head teachers to take the fullest advantage of the opportunity their pupils have of receiving a training in subjects so useful to them in after-life. Classes in one or other of the several forms of handwork have been carried on in 92 schools during the year, while 55 classes in swimming and life-saving have been held. As was to be expected, the appointment of an instructor in agriculture, with an assistant to visit the country schools and advise teachers in practical work, has raven a stimulus to elementary agriculture, in which subject no less than 93 classes Lave received the Department's recognition. At the Christchurch Technical College a very large number of classes in technical subjects has been held, the total number of individual students having been 913, as compared with 300 in 1906. These figures are exclusive of the 277 pupils on the roll of the day school. In his report the Director refers to the important innovation in the trades department, where instruction has been given in machine shearing and wool-classing, there having been no less than five classes in the latter subject. The movement in the direction of establishing a. training-hostel in Christchurch . at which girls may receive practical instruction in domesi ie science, will lie watched wii \\ great interest, and it augurs well for the ultimate success of the object in view that the Board of Managers have been able to raise in so short a time a substantial part of the necessary funds. At the Ashburton centre a healthy interest in both school and technical classes has been maintained, the commercial and industrial sides being well represented. At Rangiora classes in thirteen subjects have been held, as compared with five in the previous year, wool-classing having been added to the list, which it is confidently expected will continue to show a further increase, owing to the facilities offered by the very commodious and thoroughly equipped building the management now have at their disposal. At Kaiapoi the disadvantages under which the technical.classes have been hitherto carried on will .shortly disappear, the new building being, at the date of this report, ready for occupation. Appended to this report are the reports of the several centres, from which a general estimate of the work as a whole may be formed. Extract prom the Report of the Inspectors of Schools. Drawing in conjunction with brushwork and plasticine modelling is doing much to provide effective hand-and-eye training in our best schools. But there are others less satisfactory. In not a few this freer and wider treatment of the subject has led to desultory teaching. Too often the exercises suggest that they have been selected without serious attempt to insure continuity of study, or graduation or variety of treatment. To make our instruction in drawing effective, the teaching should have a definite aim in view. After taking into account the circumstances of the school, its staff and equipment, there should be formulated a definite method of presentment of this subject for all classes, from the highest to the lowest, by means of a varied and graduated scheme of exercises involving the use of chalk, pencil, brush, or instruments. The course of drawing outlined in sections 44 to 46 of the syllabus is definite and clear enough to enable teachers to construct such a scheme, which, in our opinion, will go far to insure in the teaching of drawing and handwork in our schools unity of purpose and efficiency of treatment. In the infant and lower departments of our better schools, drawing of simple objects and natural forms, with memory and imaginative drawing with chalk, pencil, and brush, testify as much to the intelligent interest aroused as to skill and success of the teacher. Model and nature drawing, conventional ornament and design, the latter in combination with mechanical drawing and drawing to scale, are being taught with considerable success in the higher classes of many of our schools. During the year there has been a further advance in the treatment of agriculture in several of our schools. The tact and enthusiasm of Mr. Malcolm, the Board's instructor, has roused a renewed and more extended interest in this subject, and the attendance at Saturday lectures and the Summer School shows that a considerable number of teachers are manifesting an active interest in the work. Of the importance of agriculture in this district there is no need to speak. It cannot be expected that fully equipped farmers can be turned out of our primary schools, but valuable training can !><■ given in habits of careful observation, and much useful information (associated, as far as possible, with experiment) about soils, cultivation, and general farming operations can be imparted. "The children will also realize that work on the farm need not be all drudgery ; that there is plenty of scope for intelligence ; and further, that there is a dignity about agriculture that has not been too widely recognized." In the arrangement and work of the school-gardens teachers have received valuable direction and assistance from Mr. Moodie. the assistant instructor. Extract from the Report on Special Classes at Kaiapoi. The year just ended has been one of the most successful in many ways in connection with these classes, (lasses have been held in dresscuting, millinery, cookery, wood-carving, woodwork, and book-keeping. Besides being well attended, an enthusiastic feeling pervaded the whole of the students.