E.—s.

increase in the roll numbers of the several classes, but new subjects of instruction have been added. This improvement 1 is due in a large measure to the completion of the new Technical School building, whereby the management is enabled to offer much greater facilities than had been possible in the past. At Kaiapoi. too, the scope of the work has been enlarged, and classes placed on a more satisfactory footing — again the natural result of the improved conditions obtaining, owing to the locality now having a commodious and well-appointed Technical School building. At Rangiora, as indicated in the Board's previous report, the control of manual and technical classes lias been transferred front the Board of Managers to the Rangiora High School Board, except that as regards the supervision of school olasses the local Committee act for the Education Board. At some of the smaller centres some diminution in the interest previously evinced in the work appears to have taken place. This is a matter for regret, and the Board trusts that as the true value of technical training becomes more generally recognized the interest taken in the subject when classes were Hist established will be revived, and that the authorities to whom the work litis been entrusted will not rest content until every facility is given for young people to obtain instruction in sonic tit least of the subjects comprising vocational education. The number of classes in some form of handwork and in swimming .and life-saving is approximately the same as in the previous year —viz., ninety-nine and fifty-seven respectively, as compared with ninety-six and fifty-five in Kill. A still further increase is shown in the number of classes in elementary agriculture, there being no fewer than 128 schools at which this work is now carried on. under the fostering rare and supervision of the chief instructor and his assistant. Extract prom the Rbport op the Inspectors of % Sohools. There has been steady progress in drawing and handwork during the year, with a continually widening scope of work. The educational results of these subjects have been kept prominently in the foreground. We would again impress upon teachers the importance of object-drawing, and trust that more attention will be given to mass drawing in pencil and brush. During the year there has been considerable extension of the opportunities for taking cookery, and we hope that the instruction at the various centres will be on such lines as to avoid overlapping, and break sufficient new ground each year to maintain unabated interest. Lincoln and Kaikoura District High Schools have made a very promising beginning with rural courses of study, and several of the other centres have modified their programmes of instruction in the direction of giving greater prominence to agriculture. Extract prom the Report or the Director op Manual Training. The new centre tit Sydenham, which was opened tit the beginning of the year, has proved an immense advantage. Not only has it allowed the pupils from the Sydenham, Addington, Waltham, Opawa and Somerfield Schools to be taken with a minimum loss of time in travelling to and fro, but the excellent arrangements of the centre have added much to the pleasure and efficiency of the work. It is greatly to lie desired that it may not be necessary much longer to continue to use the entirely unsuitable building which in the past has had to do duty for a woodwork-room at the Normal School, and that another centre as worthy of the work as that at Sydenham will be erected in the east of the city to provide for the East Christchurch, Richmond, North Linwood, Burwood, and New Brighton Schools. Throughout the session the instructors have been endeavouring as far as possible to afford opportunities for original thought on the part of the pupils not only in the way of descriptive notes and summaries of lessons, but also in the suggestion of woodwork exercises. It is surely necessary in all work of this kind to recognize the- truth that " 'Twas better youth should strive through ways uncouth towards making, than to repose on aught found made " ; and, although the work done will contain many faults due to immaturity and inexperience, nevertheless, because it is the result of the pupil's own thought and initiative. its value will lie ftir greater. Dictated notes may be properly winded and correctly spelt, but their educational value is practically nil. One very pleasing feature of the work of the year has been the c-xtc nsion of the benefits of manual training to schools outside the immediate district. We have not only had two tr 1 classes from the new Somerfield School, but two classes of boys and girls have conic in from Hornby, and a number of pupils from the Heathcote School. We have been asked next year to make provision for additional classes from the Belfast. I! iccarton, ami Spreydon Schools. The recognition of the vital importance of the training in manual work is happily growing. lii a report presented by a committee of Inspectors appointed by the English Board of Education, thej state that "to neglect manual training, of which the direct effect is to increase the efficiency of specialized groups of iniiscl -s and of the brain and sense organs in connexion with them, is seriously to mutilate our education, and it is the more serious in the case of the many children whose faculties for work, discipline, and constructive mental effort can best, or only, be developed in this way. We would associate ourselves with the opinion often expressed that the education hitherto given ill the ordinary elementary schools has not been in the fullest sense plait ical." Bergson, in his recent work on "Creative Evolution," says : "If we could rid ourselves of all pride, if to define our species we kept strictly to what the historic and prehistoric periods show us to be a constant characteristic of man and of intelligence, we should say. perhaps, not homo sapiens, but homo fahir. In short, intelligence, considered in what seems to be its original feature, is the faculty of manufacturing artificial objects, especially tools to make tools, and of indefinitely varying the manufacture." If tool-making and tool-using has been the characteristic- that has distinguished man from the lower animals and raised him above them, it is surely of great moment that in the life-history of the individual special attention should be given to the development of his constructive faculties. John 11. Howell, Director of Manual Training.

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