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of monetary assets over liabilities, at the end. of the year amounted to £85,676. With this limitation every Education Board had a balance to credit on. its accounts, generally, with the exception of Nelson, which had a debit balance of £2,069. The accounts contributing most largely towards the credit balance were those of the General Fund and of Manual and Technical Instruction Fund, the balances on these accounts more than compensating for the deficits on other accounts. These deficits, however, it should be stated, amounted to nearly £19,000. The following is a summary of the cash assets and liabilities of the Boards on all accounts, excluding buildings, at the 31st December, 1917 : — All Accounts (excluding Buildings). Monetary Assets. £ Liabilities. £ Bank balance .. .. .. 76,359 Overdraft.. .. .. .. 3,064 Other assets.. .. .. .. 24,315 Other liabilities .. .. .. 11,934 Total .. .. .. £100,674 Total .. .. .. £14,998 Credit balance .. .. £85,676 The position of the individual Boards is shown in Table F6a of E.-2. 2. Buildings Account. The Buildings Account refers to moneys granted for two purposes, which by parliamentary appropriation and by the terms of the grants made by the Department are quite distinct, namely,— (a.) Moneys granted from the Consolidated Fund for the general maintenance and replacement of school buildings, furniture, fittings, &c, and additional sums paid for the rebuilding of schools destroyed by fire, and for the rent of temporary premises during such rebuilding ; (_.) Moneys granted from the Public Works Fund specially for the erection of new public and technical schools and the extension of existing schools rendered necessary by increased attendance, for the purchase of school-sites, and for building teachers' residences in certain cases where suitable houses cannot be rented. The total income of the Boards on account of the erection of new publicschool buildings and additions was £44,198, while the expenditure was £42,443, as compared with £34,899 in 1916, £65,648 in 1915, and £92,192 in 1914. While the cost of individual buildings has very greatly increased the reduced expenditure as compared with pre-war periods is largely due to the postponement of action and to economies enforced by war conditions. The debit balance on the New School Buildings Account, allowing for the amounts due to and owing by the Boards, was £30,167, the position being slightly worse than at the end of 1916. The Wanganui Hawke's Bay, and Wellington Boards are 'responsible for nearly three-fourths of the total deficit. With reference to the Manual and Technical Buildings Account, the Board's income was £8,244, and the expenditure £10,706. The deficit was reduced by transfers from other accounts amounting to £1,991, but with the debit balance carried over from previous years the deficit at the end of 1917 amounted to £19,189, to which should be added the excess of amounts owing by over amounts due to the Boards, totalling £2,996. The Sites Sales Account continues to show a debit balance, amounting to £9,677, at the end of the year, or, including a deficit wrongly transferred by one Board to another account, to £11,857. The Wellington Board has the largest deficit on this account in consequence, probably, of the high price of land in the vicinity of Wellington. Annual grants are made to Education Boards for the purposes of the maintenance and replacement of school buildings, the account until 1917 being regarded as one. By the provisions of the Statute Law Amendment Act of 1917 it became necessary for the Boards at the end of October to separate the Maintenance Account from the Rebuilding Account, the balance to the credit of the previously combined account being held in trust for the specific purpose of rebuilding worn-out schools. The credit balance of the Rebuilding Account at the end of the year was £152,406,

6—E. 1.