E.—s

An increase in the number of pupils receiving instruction in woodwork, metalwork, and domestic subjects under special instructors at manual-training centres has again to be recorded, the number for 1930 being 46,557, as compared with 45,493 for the previous year. Included in this total are 6,221 primary and secondary pupils from junior and senior high schools. Where possible, opportunity is given for attendance at the centres of pupils from private schools, and during the year some 3,822 boys and girls from such schools were so provided for. Instruction in advanced nature-study and elementary agriculture, involving practical work in school gardens and experimental plots, was taken by 49,698 pupils of Standard IV and upwards in primary and district high schools. Instruction in other science subjects, such as dairy science, physics, and chemistry, was given to secondary pupils of district high schools and also to 5,318 primary pupils of such schools as had no facilities for training in elementary agriculture. For the purpose of capitation grants all of this science work, which, is conducted under the supervision of the special instructors, is classed under the general head of " Manual Training." For the conduct of instruction in the manual-training subjects, 159 classified specialist instructors were employed by the various Education Boards. In these numbers there has been an increase of five. Included in the total are twenty-three instructors engaged in the supervision of the teaching of nature-study, elementary agriculture, and science generally ; in this number there has bee n no change for some years past. In some of the technical schools where appropriate workrooms are not fully engaged throughout the day, manual-training classes in woodwork, metalwork, and domestic subjects are accommodated, and the services of forty-one teachers on the full-time staffs of such schools were so made use of for varying periods during the year. In only three centres were part-time instructors employed for ordinary manual-training subjects, but 518 local part-time teachers were engaged in needlework instruction in small schools which had no women teachers on the staff. At the August Examination for the Handicraft Teachers' Certificate there were twenty-five candidates. Of this number, seven obtained passes in Section I, three obtained passes in Section 11, and one obtained a partial pass ; one obtained a partial pass in Section 111 ; three candidates passed the whole examination, while seven failed. The issue of this certificate was first provided for in 1925, and the full examination has now been passed by six teachers. I have, &c., W. S. La Tkobe, Superintendent of Technical Education. The Director of Education.

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