E.—4

12

bered that the intensity of a sound varies in inverse proportion to the square of its distance. The tick of a watch held at 1 in. from the ear will make 1,296 times as much impression on the auditory nerve as it will at the distance of 1 yd. A child may hear quite well when seated in the front row of the class and miss nearly everything when seated farther back. Similarly a child who is deaf in one ear should be made to sit on the appropriate side of the class-room. The importance of thus making provision for partially deaf children should be impressed upon all teachers. In some cases such children have been found occupying seats in the back rows of the class-room, where their disabilities are immeasurably increased. The extent to which partial deafness interferes with education does not appear to be appreciated as much as it deserves, especially by parents, who cannot without great difficulty be made to see that a child that cannot hear the ordinary tones of the voice at a distance of a few feet is quite incapable of being taught efficiently along with normal children under public-school conditions. It is astonishing, too, how serious deafness may go undetected for years. By picking up a little skill in lip-reading and by watching the faces and the movements of the teacher and the other pupils a clever deaf child may for a time keep up more or less with the others in the class. A duller child is likely to be set down as feeble-minded or punished for wilful disobedience. Continual discouragement, aggravated by the ridicule resulting from incorrect or absurd answers to imperfectly heard questions, together with the constant effort to catch amid the clatter of the class-room the words of the teacher, may set up a serious condition of nerve-strain and an aggravation of the defective hearing. The miseries of the partially deaf child may also be increased by defects in the enunciation of the teacher or in the acoustics of the schoolroom, and even a comparatively slight degree of deafness may thus become a tremendous hindrance to education. For those deaf children who cannot, even when favourably placed in the classroom, be efficiently educated in the public schools it is proposed to make provision for them by the opening of special classes for the hard-of-hearing in each of the four centres. These classes will be regarded as branches of the School for the Deaf, as it is essential that the teachers in charge of them should have had an adequate training in the teaching of deaf children and experience in the treatment of speechdefects generally. The latter are unfortunately very common in New Zealand, as elsewhere, and should be attended to as soon as they are observed, otherwise the difficulties in the way of eradicating them will be greatly intensified. The establishment of the special classes referred to will tend to the very desirable result of reducing the already unduly large roll number at this school. An even more necessary step that has often been recommended by the Director is the opening of a separate school for young deaf children, who should be kept away from the olderpupils until they are able to express themselves by means of speech. The tendency to resort to the use of signs would then be greatly diminished. The establishment of special day classes for the hard-of-hearing and of a separate preparatory school will complete the subdivision of the present school, which for years has been larger in point of numbers than is desirable. The policy of herding the deaf together in large communities is most strongly to be condemned from an educational standpoint. The expenditure on the school for the last financial year is as follows :— £ £ Salaries and war bonus . . . . . . .. 4,202 Maintenance of pupils and sundry expenses . . .. .. 1,795 Travelling-expenses .. . . .. .. . . .. 174 Maintenance of buildings, furnishings, &c. .. . . .. 500 New buildings and works .. .. .. .. .. 384 7,055 Less — Parental contributions .. . . .. 1,295 Amounts collected from Hospital and Charitable Aid Boards 1,732 Sundry other recoveries . . .. .. .. 55 3,082 Net expenditure .. .. .. .. £3,973 The net expenditure for the year 191.7-18 was £3,393.