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Subsidies on Voluntary Contributions. An increasing number of public schools is taking advantage of section 159 of the Education Act, which provides for the payment of subsidies on voluntary contributions raised locally for a large number of purposes, including extension of school-sites, improvements to buildings, special equipment and apparatus for school purposes or for organized games, school libraries, ground improvements, and so on. Prior to 1914 subsidies were available to district high schools only, but the F4ct of 1914 extended the privilege to all public schools. It may be justly claimed that the system is on a more generous basis than obtains in other countries. It has been the means of stimulating throughout the Dominion a strong spirit of self-help and local effort, and has undoubtedly enhanced the pride taken locally in the schools and their surroundings. The regulation that was introduced limiting the amount payable to any one school during any financial year, while making special concession in the case of small schools, has been repealed with a view to still further extending the privileges to such schools. Applications were received from 964 schools in 1922, as against 906 for the previous year. The payments by the Department amounted to £13,513, and at the close of the year the commitments were £8,246. Class-books and School Libraries. Included in the purposes for which voluntary contributions may be subsidized is the provision and maintenance of school libraries, and in addition to the departmental subsidy the Education Board may pay a further subsidy for this purpose. The books purchased for school libraries are approved by the Inspector ol: Schools and are such as are suitable for individual reading in school or at home. A capitation grant of 3d. per child is also payable for the purpose of supplying schools with supplementary continuous readers for class reading, and also for the free supply of class-books in necessitous cases or in cases where a newly entered pupil has already purchased elsewhere class-books different from those in use in the school. As many of the Education Boards had moneys in hand on this account in 1922 smaller grants than usual were made, the total disbursements made by the Department for this purpose during the financial year being £1,762. An improved scheme for the supply ot continuous readers and library books to schools is under consideration. Physical Education. The annual report of the Chief Physical Instructor is a record of satisfactory progress in the work of physical education, the advance in some districts, where the staffing is more liberal, being greater than in. others. The staff of physical instructors (twelve in number) is still smaller than it was in 1920, so that the task of covering all the ground remains a, difficult one. School-teachers continue to express their appreciation of the assistance and inspiration they receive from the visits of the physical instructors, the only regret being that the visits cannot be more frequent. There is still an urgent need, for the holding of refresher classes for teachers, many of whom received only a short training nine years ago, and others of whom have had no training at all. The best work so far as training the teachers is concerned is accomplished at the training colleges, where the students receive an adequate training from the physical instructors and go out into the schools thoroughly competent to impart the principles of physical education to their pupils. Physical instructors and school medical officers continue to work in close co-opera-tion especially in connection with the forming of corrective classes for children suffering from postural, deformities. These classes always justify their existence, but it is found that where school-teachers with a sufficient grasp of the principles of physical education insist upon correct posture in school they are able to prevent the development of postural deformities, and corrective classes become unnecessary. The Chief Physical Instructor pays a high tribute to the school-teachers who have brought the subject up to so high a standard of excellency in their schools. These teachers realize the value of physical education not only as a benefit to the physique but also as an aid to discipline, self-control, and concentration, and as a means of appeal to the mentality of the pupils. The expenditure by the Department on physical education in 1922-23 was £6,180, and in mentioning the cost the following remark in a circular of the Board of Education, England, may be quoted: "It is reasonable to anticipate that if it is properly developed it [physical education] will gradually afford relief from some of the heavy expenditure on other special services."