Appendix."

E.—6.

ASHBURTON HIGH SCHOOL. Staff. Mr. W. F. Waiters, B.A. ; Mr. .1. Stewart, M.A. : Mr. .1. A. Gordon, B.A. ; Miss F. E. Korshaw, M.A. ; Miss M. Steven, 8.A., B.Sc. I. Report of the Board of Governors. The personnel of the Board is as follows : Mr. Joshua Tucker (Chairman), His Worship the Mayor (Henry Davis, Esq.), and Messrs. C. Reid, W. B. Denshire, W. H. Collins, Hugo Friedlander. and W. T. Lill. The Board held seventeen meetings, the average attendance being five. The school roll, while not so large as in the previous year, was well maintained, the total enrolment being 115 —sixty-two boys and fifty-three girls. The number of new pupils entered was forty-seven —twenty-nine boys and eighteen girls. The number of fee-paying pupils was four. There were in attendance seven scholarship-holders (one Senior Board, five Junior Board, and one Junior National). Mr. A. H. R. Amess was in April appointed assistant agricultural instructor to the North Canterbury Education Board, and his position was filled by the appointment of Al r. J. A. Gordon, B.A. The Board regrets the loss of the services of Miss Steven, 8.A.. B.Sc, who has been recently appointed to an important position on the staff of the Wanganui Technical College, and who for eight years past has been a most efficient member of the staff. Miss Kershaw was absent on holiday in Europe from the beginning of March, her duties being efficiently carried out by Miss Bentham, M.A. The work of the school has gone on smoothly and efficiently throughout the year, and we believe that the staff and pupils are animated by a desire to raise their school to the level of the best schools in the Dominion. The various courses have been maintained as usual, and the agricultural course is now extended by the carrying-out of co-operative experiments in conjunction with the Department of Agriculture. For this purpose a half-acre of land opposite the school has been leased from the Borough Council. It is hoped that if the Government accept the offer of the Board of its reserve in Hampstead for the purposes of an experimental farm, such a training in practical agriculture will be secured for the pupils of the school as to make this subject the most important of the school course, and to prove of great advantage to the farming interests of this community. The various school athletic clubs and institutions have had a prosperous career ; the cadet corps was highly praised by the Officer Commanding District on his recent visit, and the shooting of the corps has reached a higher standard than ever before. The new swimming-bath is a complete success, and it is hoped that no pupil will now pass out of the school without being able to swim or to help in lifesaving. A new stable has been erected for pupils who ride to school. By the payment of £150 to the Technical Classes Board of Managers, the Board resumed possession of the old school building, one of the rooms of which it intends to convert into a gymnasium, which will be available for use early next year. Another room will be converted into a girls' lunch eon-room. The Board has still further improved the school-grounds, which are gradually assuming a very ornamental appearance. The examination of the pupils by Mr. Gill in September was highly satisfactory, all but three of the candidates qualifying for the Senior Free Place test. In the various public examinations one candidate gained a Senior National Scholarship : one passed the University Entrance Scholarship Examination with credit, and was awarded a Gammack Scholarship tenable for three years at Canterbury College ; four passed Matriculation on the University Scholarship Examination; three passed Matriculation : two gained Senior Education Board Scholarships, being third and fifth on the list respectively ; fifteen passed the Junior Civil Service Examination, two with credit; thirteen were, awarded Senior Free Places, and one had the Junior Free Place extended for one year. Joshua Tucker, Chairman. 2. Work of the Highest and Lowest Classes. Highest. —English —Hamlet ; Lear ; Othello ; Idylls of the King (three) : Macaulay's Essay or, VValpole ; selections from the Spectator : Chaucer's Prologue : Epochs of English Literature (Stobart —nine books) ; readings from prominent authors (449-1850) ; Lees's English Grammar on Historical Lines; Nesfield's Aids to English Grammar and Composition : Williams's Composition : notes or grammar and literature. Latin—Horace. Odes. II : Livy, Book XXVI : Cicero's Selected Letters (Jeans) ; Watt and Hayes's Matriculation Selections ; unseens : Spragge's Latin Prose ; GildersleeveLodge Latin Grammar ; history : antiquities : prosody. French- Weekley's Matriculation Course : Tutorial French Composition (Mercier) : Rev's French Composition ; Renault's Grammaiie Francaise ; Siepmann's French Course, Part 111 ; Matriculation French Reader : unseens ; phonetics. Mathematics —Arithmetic, the whole subject (Goyen's Arithmetic) ; algebra. Baker and Bourne, to end of permutations and combinations ; geometry, Baker and Bourne, to end of Book VII ; trigonometry, Bridgett and Hyslop, to p. 237. Botany —As for University Entrance Scholarship (Dendy and Lucas and Lowson). Heat—As for University Entrance Scholarship (Stewart's Matriculation Heat, with additional notes). History and geography —As for University Entrance Scholarship. Lowest. —English —Jones's First English Course ; Goyen's Composition ; analysis ; synthesis : parsing ; punctuation; essays; prosody; Silas Marner; Marmion. Latin—Longmans' Latin Grammar, to p. 139 (end of cardinal numbers) ; Ora Maritima. 42 chapters. French —Siepmann's French Course, Part I. Arithmetic —Goyen's 4\rithmetic, pp. 176-185. 306 350 : miscellaneous examples. Geometry —Kerr's Constructive Geometry : practical work ; Baker and Bourne. Book I, to proposition XX, with easy exercises. Algebra—Baker and Bourne, to p. 158. Agriculture— Kirk's Elementary Agriculture ; practical and experimental work in the field and the laboratory. Botany —Evans's Botany, to p. 243. Book-keeping —Grierson's Book-keeping. Shorthand —Gregg's Handbook. Typewriting. Woodwork, cooking, dressmaking, according to Department's syllabus.

6—E. 6.

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