E.--1

The value of the services rendered, by Inspectors of Schools in connection with the examination of papers and supervision of the annual examinations is estimated at about £500. This is a considerable decrease compared with the value of work done at the previous examinations (£1,400), but it was considered advisable to lighten considerably the burden of examination-work previously carried by Inspectors. The cost of conducting the examinations was as follows : — Total expenses, including cost of additional, clerical services temporarily £ employed, but omitting other salaries .. .. .. .. 5,519 Less recoveries--- £ Pees paid by candidates for teachers' certificates and others . . 2,200 Paid by Public Service Commissioner for expense of conducting Public Service Examinations, the fees for which, amounting to £1,193, were credited to him— Public Service Entrance, June 1918 .. .. 261. Public Service Entrance, January, 1919 .. .. 1,125 Public Service Senior and Typists' Examinations .. 105 3,691 Net, expenditure .. .. .. .. £1,828 Subs to ie ,s to Publio Libeaeies. (See also 10. 10, Subsidies to Pnlilie Libraries.) During the period of the war the grants voted by Parliament for distribution to public libraries have been on a more limited scale than in previous years. No grant was made in 1917, and in 1918 £3,000 was voted in lieu of £4,000 as in former years. The distribution of this grant, which took place in March, 1.9.19, was confined to libraries situated in places having less than fifteen hundred inhabitants, for the reason that small libraries in country districts are more dependent upon financial assistance from the Government than are libraries supported by larger numbers of subscribers. The conditions under which the vote is distributed require that a library participating in the benefits must be public in the sense of not being under the control of an association or society the membership of Avhich is composed of only part of the community, and if a borough library a reading-room open to the public free of charge must be provided. In addition, the receipts from subscriptions and donations to the funds of the library during the year must not have been less than £2, this sum being regarded as a very low minimum to ensure that the library receives a certain amount of local support. An application to share in the grant is accompanied by statements of the annual receipts and payments of the body controlling the library, the membership, and the general arrangements for the carrying-on of the library. The grant is distributed as a subsidy, the sum paid to each library being based upon the amount received during the year* by the library by way of subscriptions, donations, and special rates. To this amount is made a nominal addition of £25, but no library receives credit for a larger income than £25' —that is, in no case does the amount upon which subsidy is based exceed £50. In this manner the interests of smaller and less prosperous libraries are protected. The number of libraries participating in the vote in 1919 was 275 —thirtynine more than was the case in 1917, when a smaller grant was divided among libraries n places of less than a thousand inhabitants, and about one hundred less than the number among which the grant was distributed prior to the war, when it was unnecessary to restrict the subsidies to libraries in country districts. The incomes of the libraries from subscriptions, &c, ranged from £2 to £132, and the vote yielded a subsidy of 6s. 2d. in the pound on the nominal income (ascertained in the manner described above), the subsidies paid ranging from £8 Bs. 2d. to £15 lis. 6d. In order that the purpose intended to be served by the vote may be attained, it is made a, condition that the whole of the sudsidy granted to each library must be expended in the purchase of books. Tt is further enjoined upon the authorities in charge of the libraries that a due proportion of the books purchased shall lie books having a permanent value. The present high prices and comparative scarcity of books will, no doubt, make the Government assistance doubly welcome on this occasion, and it is felt that anything done in the way of making good literature more accessible to country residents especially is a well-directed effort.

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