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skilled. Opportunity was taken to introduce some instruction in dairy science. The students showed a very keen interest in this work. These classes supplied the requirements in practical work of pupilteachers, probationers, and uncertificated teachers aiming at D, and of certificated teachers with C in view. Uncertificated teachers enter the service with very varied qualifications : some have only the Standard VI status, others the B.A. The day of the Standard VI entrant is practically gone, as the requirements are steadily rising. The criticism lessons receive more adequate treatment than formerly, but the written criticisms on these lessons are at times of little worth. When such is confined to a sentence of general commendation the young teacher is apt to consider he has nothing more to learn in teaching. Inexperienced teachers are sent to the Model School for a fortnight, and are given intensive training in method, organization, study of schemes, &c. We are fortunate in having a very suitable teacher. A school of this character is especially valuable in a district that has no training college ready at hand and where uncertificated teachers are relatively numerous. Organizing Teachers. These also have great influence in raising the standard of schools in charge of uncertificated teachers. Messrs. Gray and Menzies did notably well, and their successors display similar skill and zeal. There is no innovation of recent years that has done more than this to improve attainment in remote schools and to make their achievement comparable with that of the cities. Subjects of Instruction. Speech-training receives increasing attention; nevertheless there are in certain schools idioms in speech that should be collected and given special consideration. The teaching should be more systematic : many of the schemes do not show a definite programme of work, and the methods are often general rather than specific. There has been some advance in distinctness of enunciation, at least inside the school. Reading. —Considerable sums have been spent in improving the school libraries ; but there are still schools where the reading-matter provided for the children is insufficient in quantity. We propose during the current year to make the libraries the subject of special investigation. The books should be arranged in groups suited to the Several standards, and in the larger schools each class should have its own library. A lack of supervision of the silent reading is often noticeable. The result is that the teacher knows little of what the pupils have gained during the time allotted to silent reading. There should be a definite linking-up of home reading with that of the school. A reading community is a thinking community, and teachers can in this matter exert a very powerful influence upon the future tastes of their pupils. The keeping of individual reading lists has been found beneficial: the practice should be made general. Recitation. —On the average the work is of satisfactory character. At times a larger infusion of drama and feeling would improve the rendering. More use may be made of nursery rhymes. Clipped endings and mispronunciation are much leSs pardonable in recitation than in reading, for the selections have been conned many times. Where " own choice "is allowed, the selection should be from the teacher's approved list of passages, or, at least, the pieces produced should be Scanned to ascertain their value as literature. Teachers have found it a distinct benefit to take recitation in short weekly periods instead of one longer weekly period —a method based on sound psychology. Singing. —Only in the minority of our schools is this subject treated with an approach to proper graduation of exercises, but there is a wider appreciation of the value of the subject in its bearing on relaxation. The cultivation of rich and mellow tones is recommended : at times the singing is too loud and harsh. There should also be more of sight reading from easy passages, beginning with phrases from well-known Songs and hymns. The increased weekly time proposed for singing should result in improvement. Teachers are recommended to study the requirements of the syllabus. Writing.—ln this subject a higher standard is desirable in many schools. The variation in quality from standard in large schools sometimes points to defective supervision by the head teacher. Weak general writing is recognized as an accomplishment to faulty discipline. Care in presentment of written work has important reactions on the character that no teacher can afford to neglect. There has been little experimentation with print script. Teachers should make a more intensive study of teaching writing. Spelling. —The words should be chosen from the written vocabulary of the child—i.e., selection should be psychological rather than logical. Formerly much time was given to learning spelling : we are pleased to find that teachers are giving more thought to teaching the subject. Composition. —In Standard II the essay sometimes takes the form of disjointed, unrelated sentences, with much crude repetition ; but classes are not wanting where it is fluent, well arranged, and apt in expression. In the early stages the narrative is easier than the descriptive essay. Punctuation is too frequently faulty. In the higher standards paragraph Study merits more attention than it receives at present. Recent text-books show a tendency to return to grammar, though not to the old formal grammar. We doubtless need to revise our ideas of aim in this subject, Seeing that a much greater percentage of Standard VI go on to secondary work than used to be the case when grammar was largely ejected from the syllabus. Of course, if every lesson in other Subjects were made a model of expression, composition would be a better written and oral reflection of the child's activities, and its formal teaching would not require so much time. The teaching of grammar in Standard VI appears to follow too closely the lines of the test-cards. When a grammar card takes an unusual form the pupils are seldom able to obtain good marks ; similarly, set exercises in variation are often done well, while tie essays reveal an inability to apply these exercises to written expression.