E.—l.

saved the children the need for walking fairly considerable distances, or has enabled the parents to avoid providing horses, bicycles, or wheeled vehicles for the children. In the case of such " convenience services " it has been generally arranged that nothing more than payment of the capitation allowance of 6d. or Bd. a day (depending on distance between home and school) should be paid, and that the parents should contribute the balance of the cost (if any). The investigation of conveyance services and costs led to the discovery that the system of allowing local authorities to arrange contracts, without the necessity for submitting them for approval, on the basis of payment by the Government of capitation allowance and half the cost in excess of capitation, could not be continued, since it had led to extraordinary overlapping of service and consequent increase of expenditure in some districts. Severe curtailment was found to be necessary in the case of one district, and costs have been substantially reduced in consequence. Following on the passing of the Transport Licensing Act, 1931, officers of my Department co-operated with officers of the Transport Department with a view to removing any preventable danger to children through the use of unsafe motor-vehicles by conveyance contractors, and it is considered that this risk has now been greatly minimized. It was found necessary during the year to amend the regulations for manual and technical instruction under which technical schools were empowered to use their funds for conveyance of children, provided that there was money available after other specified expenses had been met. Approval was given for technical schools which had already established bus services, or were subsidizing payments made for the pupils' expenses of travel by bus, to continue these until the close of the year, but with the understanding that they should cease altogether at that time. By thus making it the parent's responsibility to defray the expenses of their children's transport, the double object is achieved of leaving the funds available for use in connection with more essential needs of the schools and of avoiding the anomaly under which bus transport was provided free for pupils of technical schools and refused to pupils of secondary schools. The only free conveyance of secondary and technical school pupils is now that provided by the Government railways. The following table shows the Education Department's expenditure on all classes of pupils and on all methods of conveyance during 1931, the expenditure on rail being shown separately : —

Table V. —Cost of Conveyance of Pupils to Schools and to Manual Classes by Rail, Motor-vehicle, etc.

The Department expended also in 1931 a sum of £8,408 in contributing towards the cost of board of those children who were obliged to live away from home in order to attend a public school or Native school. 5—E. 1.

33

1930. 1931. Type of School. Rail. Other. Total. Rail. Other. Total. ££££££ Public primary .. .. .. .. 2,062 64,709* 66 ; 771| 1,981 63,849 65,830f Private primary •• •• •• 2,168 .. 2,168 2,193 .. 2,193 Manual classes in connection with public 5,958 2,380 8,338 5,720 5,167 10,887 primary Manual classes in connection with private 77 77 53 .. 53 primary Junior high .. .. .. . . 97 34 131 182 62 244 Secondary departments of district high .. 1,456 432 1,888 1,354 778 2,132 Secondary .. .. .. .. 5,613 397 6,010 5,298 373 5,671 Combined . . . . . . .. .. .. . • 59 .. 59 Technical .. .. .. .. 6,064 14 6,078 6,140 .. 6,140 Private secondary .. . . . . 916 .. 916 967 . . 967 Native .. .. .. .. 24 2,211 2,235 36 3,059 3,095 Totals .. .. .. 24,435 70,177 94,612 23,983 73,288 97,271 * This sum includes approximately £2,000 on account of manual classes in connection with public primary schools. t This sum includes the expenditure on conveyance of children to consolidated schools.