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Extract from Report of Instructor in Agriculture. The district high schools at Lincoln, Darfield, Oxford, and Kaikoura continue to do useful work in the subjects of the rural course. The attendance all round is smaller this year than last, especially at Oxford, but there are signs of improvement. The special subjects of instruction in this course have all been taken by Mr. Amess, who shows a real enthusiasm in his work, and who has bestowed that enthusiasm on most of his pupils. Considering what a small percentage of country pupils in North Canterbury get any secondary education, there seems room for several more district high schools, and it is to be regretted that in the very centre of the agricultural industry so very few are getting any special instruction in the subjects of the rural course. I have placed a leaflet in the hands of all pupils passing the Standard VI examination, drawing attention to the necessity for, and character of, our rural instruction in district high schools. SOUTH CANTERBURY. Report of Inspectors of Schools. The district high schools at Waimate, Temuka, and Pleasant Point are managed by headmasters of long experience and well-proved skill. From the time that such schools were first established in South Canterbury the Board has been careful to select as headmasters men skilled in. primary-school work, and as a guarantee of their fitness to take a share in the secondary work and to supe/vise the assistants in the secondary department the Board has also made it a condition that the headmasters should be University graduates. That this policy has been a wise one has been amply proved by the success of our district high school pupils in the Public Service, Scholarships, Teachers' Certificate and University Examinations. The numbers in attendance at the end of the year were fifty-one at Waimate, thirty at Temuka, and twenty-one at Pleasant Point. The rural-science course as laid down for district high schools has been followed in the three schools. In December the Board received from the Minister notice of the re-establishment of the district high school at Geraldine. OTAGO. Extract from Report of Inspectors of Schools. In six of our district high schools the rural-science course is in full operation. At Port Chalmers and at Alexandra the course followed is in the main directed towards the requirements for the various public examinations. The scheme of rural science education in the district high schools has now completed its third year of operation. The work followed in these centres has been of a fairly comprehensive character, embracing, inter alia, theoretical and practical instruction in agriculture, chemistry, botany, physics, and physiology. In the well-equipped laboratories the pupils are discovering, through demonstration or experiment, new facts and principles (i.e., new so far as the pupils are concerned) or crystallizing into something more definite the knowledge they already possess. By this investigation of principles and by the application of them is cultivated that spirit of inquiry and the scientific method of work that are essential to advancement, particularly with regard to rural pursuits. Part of the outdoor experiment work in agriculture has been conducted in co-operation with the Department of Agriculture, This co-operative work has up to the present been mainly in the nature of variety trials of the various farm crops and fodder grasses. Manurial and spraying tests have also been conducted. Although not in co-operation with the Department of Agriculture, the outdoor work has included the propagation of plants by (a) cuttings, (b) budding, (c) grafting, the principles and practice of pruning, and the treatment of insect and fungoid pests. The success in science subjects of the great majority of the candidates from the district high schools at the Public Service, Scholarship, and Matriculation Examinations, though not the ultimate objective of the rural course, bespeaks the fact that, incidentally to cultivating the scientific attitude, it is possible to meet the requirements of pupils taking these subjects for examination purposes. Good work is being done in woodwork, cookery, dressmaking, and the pupils are showing a tendency to be self-assertive, practical, and independently constructive. At Tokomairiro the boys of the woodwork classes have completed the erection of a greenhouse for use in connection with the agricultural course, and a similar building is nearing completion at Balclutha. In all tho district high, schools English is receiving satisfactory treatment; Latin and French are intelligently taught; mathematics, both practical and theoretical, civics, and geography are suitably dealt with. During the strenuous national crisis that arose in August last advantage was taken of the opportunity that offered to arouse in the pupils a live interest in national and international affairs, and the following statement of the work done by the girls of Tokomairiro District High School shows very clearly what may be accomplished under the guidance of enthusiastic and patriotic teachers without in any way interfering with the ordinary work of the school. The work referred to was mainly done before and after school hours and in spare moments. [List of articles made not printed.] That girls of S5, S6, and S7 should be able to turn out these articles is a fine testimony to the excellent training in needlework and in the use of the sewing-machine imparted to the girls of our district high schools. The head teacher in a letter containing the above statement of work says, " The girls of S5, S6, and S7 have now such a command of the sewing-machine that they can sit down to any class of work represented in the abovementioned garments and work away without guidance from the teachers." In addition to the practical work already referred to, the school provided a fully equipped, horse for an officer of the First Expeditionary Force, handed over £1 ss. to the Ladies' Patriotic Committee, and, by weekly penny contributions up to the date of closing for Christmas holidays, raised £3 6s. for the Belgian Fund. This is surely a record in national service of which the sohool may well be proud. We are not in a position to give full details of similar work done by other district high schools, but we know that they too have done fine work in the same connection.