E.—ll

2

North Staffordshire Blind and Deaf School, Stok'e-on-Trent. 112 pupils (residential). Principal, Mr. A. J. Story. Royal Institution for the Deaf-and-dumb, Derby. 172 pupils (residential). Principal, Dr. W. R. Roe. Yorkshire Institution for Deaf Children, Doncaster. 120 pupils. Principal, Mr. G. H. Greenslade. St. John's Institution for the Deaf-and-dumb, Boston Spa, Yorkshire. 228 pupils (residential). Secretary, Very Rev. Canon Dawson. Royal Institution for the Deaf-and-dumb, Birmingham. LSO pupils (residential). Principal, Mr. J. Brown. Institution for Deaf Children, Bristol. 45 residential and 10 day pupils. Principal, Mr. 0. H. Illingworth. Royal West of England Institution for the Deaf-and-dumb, at Exeter. 132 pupils (residential). Principal, Mr. P. A. Dodds. Glasgow Institution for the Deaf-and-dumb. 200 pupils (residential). Principal, Dr. W. H. Addison. The Institution for Deaf-mutes, Rotterdam. 135 day pupils. Director, Mynheer A. F. Fehmers. '.['he Institution for Deaf-mutes, Frankfurt-a-Main. 60 pupils (residential). Director, Herr J. Vatter. Ihe Institution for Deaf-mutes, Munich. 108 residential and 48 day pupils. Director, Herr A. Hofbauer. The National Institution for Deaf-mutes, at Paris. 270 pupils. Director, M. V. Collignon. The National Institution for Deaf-mutes, at Milan. 50 pupils. Director, Signor G. Ferrer i. The New South Wales Institution'for the Deaf-and-dumb and Blind. Principal, Mr. H. Earlam. The Victorian Institution for the Deaf-and-dumb. Superintendent, Mr. Adock. The South Australian Institution for the Deaf-and-dumb. Superintendent, Mr. S. Johnson. The West Australian Institution for the Deaf-and-dumb. Principal, Mr. Wichell. Besides visiting these schools I attended the Conference of Teachers of the Deaf held at Glasgow at the end of July last under the auspices of the National Association of Teachers of the Deaf. This conference was attended by a large and highly representative body of teachers, medical men, and others, mostly from Great Britain, but including representatives from America and other parts of the world, and many interesting questions connected with the education of the deaf were discussed by those present. I contributed a paper dealing with the education of the deaf in New Zealand, which was well received, my statement of our New Zealand legislation with regard to the education of the deaf meeting with general approval. I also attended in London meetings of the College of Teachers of the Deaf, and by the courtesy of the examiners was present at the annual examination of students in training conducted by the Joint Examination Board. This took place at the Jews' Deaf-and-dumb' Home, and the students were required to demonstrate their skill as teachers by giving lessons to pupils selected either from the Home or from the Oak Lodge School next door. The practical nature of the examination and the kind and considerate manner of the examiners towards the students appealed to me strongly. I also had several interviews with Dr. A. Eichholz, the Board of Education's Inspector of Schools for the Deaf, and am much indebted to him for the supply of information and for assistance in many ways. Mr. B. P. Jones, the Superintendent and Organizer of the London County Council Schools for the Deaf, also showed me the greatest amount of courtesy and consideration in every possible way, as did teachers and officials generally wherever I went. Every opportunity was given me for making the fullest and freest investigations of all matters connected with the administration and with the methods of instruction in use in the various schools that I visited, and no pains were spared by those in authority fully to enlighten me on any questions on which I desired information, and to make my visit as profitable from a professional point of view as could be. I left Europe with the most cordial feelings towards those members of my profession that I had had the pleasure of meeting, and with much satisfaction that the destinies of the deaf in the countries I visited were in the hands of such able and earnest men and women. My meeting with Dr. Kerr Love, of Glasgow, and Dr. Macleod Tearsley, of London, two of the leading aurists of Britain and co-workers in the study of the causes of and of the prevention of deafness, was a source of much interest and of pleasure to myself. I beg to draw your attention to their writings on the subject of deafness, and particularly to a course of lectures recently delivered under the auspices of the National Bureau for Promoting the General Welfare of the Deaf by Dr. Kerr Love. He and Dr. Tearsle} r , after prolonged investigation, have come to the conclusion that in a large percentage of cases deafness is due to preventable causes, and that in a much smaller percentage of cases than is commonly believed is it due to the working of Mendelian laws. It gave me great pleasure also to meet those veteran teachers, Miss S. E. Hull and Dr. Elliott, both of whom, though now retired from the actual teaching-work, still take a very active interest in movements connected with the education of the deaf, and particulai-ly in the promotion of the teaching of speech to them. I also had the pleasure of meeting Mr, and Mrs, B, St. John Ackers, who have laboured for many years in the same field,