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New Buildings (completed or proposed). The new buildings completed during the year were a school and residence at Parinui, Wanganui River ; a school and residence at Oruawharo, Kaipara Harbour ; additional classrooms at Tikitiki, Waiapu, and Matangirau, Whangaroa Harbour. Mangawhariki School was opened in a suitable building placed at the disposal of the Department by the people. The provision of the necessary buildings for Otoko Pa, Wanganui district, was undertaken during the year, and the buildings were ready for occupation early in the current year. The schools at Manukau and Werowero, North Auckland, and at Cape Runaway, Bay of Plenty, which have been conducted for several years in buildings provided by the Maori people, have proved that the need for the schools exists. Applications for the Establishment op Native Schools. Applications for the establishment of Native schools were received from the following places : Aotearoa, Waikato; Whakatiwai, Thames District; Kareponia, North Auckland ; and Rangiahua, Hokianga. These places have been visited and reported upon by the Inspectors of Native Schools. Further inquiries will be necessary in the case of Aotearoa, since it is considered that the removal of Parawera Native School to a more central position in the district may obviate the necessity for another school. With regard to Whakatiwai, it is considered that the requirements of the children concerned are reasonably provided for by the existing public school in the district. In the case of Kareponia it is found that the great majority of the children concerned live within reasonable distance of the Awanui Public School. At the Maori settlement near Rangiahua, Hokianga, the children are under rather serious disabilities in attending the public school, and consideration is to be given to the question of establishing a Native school there. At Matawaia, Bay of Islands, the people are providing a suitable building for a school, and are now engaged on the work. Attendance, etc. (1) Native Tillage Schools. At the end of the year under review there were 6,671 pupils on the rolls of the Native village schools, and this number represents an increase .of fifty-one pupils on the corresponding number of the previous year. The average weekly roll number was 6,770, and the percentage of regularity was 88-1. Information respecting the attendance is supplied in Table H 2, from the particulars of which it will be observed that of the 13-4 schools in operation at the end of the year 120 gained from. 80 to 98-9 per cent, of the possible attendance, and of this number fifty-seven schools succeeded in gaining above 90 per cent, of the possible attendance. The regularity of attendance as a whole showed a considerable improvement upon that of the previous year. Again the attendance returns reveal the fact that in many schools the number of " excepted " half-days was large, and the exclusion of these from the computation of average attendance has the result that many of the schools are credited with a higher percentage of attendance than the actual regularity of attendance warrants. The number of schools in which the attendance is really poor is not large. It is also noticed that, although the schools are required to be open at least four hundred times in the year, a considerable number of the schools failed to reach the limit fixed. Good-attendance certificates were gained by 514 pupils from Native schools. (2) Mission Schools. The following mission schools are visited by the Inspectors of Native Schools : Putiki, Wanganui ; Te Hauke, Hawke's Bay ; Tokaanu Convent School, Lake Taupo ; Matata Convent School, Bay of Plenty; Tanatana and Matahi, Bay of Plenty; Ranana and Jerusalem Convents, Wanganui River; Whakarapa Convent, Hokianga ; Pawarenga Convent, Whangape ; Waitaruke Convent, Whangaroa Harbour. The total number of pupils on the rolls of these schools at the close of the year 1928 was 550, and the average percentage of regularity was 86-7. The regularity of attendance of the pupils of Te Hauke Mission School must be regarded as poor. (3) Boarding-schools (Native Secondary Schools). These schools, which have been established by various religious denominations for the higher education of the Maori, scholars, are inspected and examined by officers of the Department. A list of the schools, together with a reference to the work done by them, will be found in the section of the report dealing with secondary education. The total number of pupils on the rolls of these schools at the end of 1928 was 533. The following table summarizes particulars regarding the roll number and attendance of the Native village schools, Maori mission schools, and the Maori boarding-schools.

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„ , i i Nlln , hpl . 1 Roll Number Average Weekly j Average | Percentage of ' at End of Year. I Roll Number. Attendance. : Regularity." | Native village .. .. 134 6,671 { 6,770-2 5,964-2 88-1 Native mission .. .. 11 550 564-2 488-8 86-7 Native secondary .. .. 12 533 531-8 506-6 95-2 156 7,754- 7,866-2 6,959-6 88-5