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(8) Education (Staffing and Salaries) Regulations The new regulations giving effect to the recommendations of the Consultative Committee on Teachers' Salaries are still under discussion with the teachers' associations, but agreement has been reached in regard to most of the clauses. It is hoped to gazette the regulations early in 1948. In the meantime the draft regulations are being used as the basis of the administration of the post-primary-school system. (9) Visits to Secondary Departments of District High Schools All these schools have this year been visited by the Post-primary Inspectors, who have confirmed or, when necessary, adjusted the provisional classifications and salaries allotted to the secondary assistants as from Ist April, 1946. Formal inspection reports have this year been written on the secondary departments of the district high schools in the Canterbury, Otago, and Southland Education Districts. These reports, together with opinions formed by Inspectors on purely grading visits, indicate that secondary assistants in the district high schools are in sympathy with the new prescriptions and are attempting very enthusiastically to solve the problems which their introduction into the school curriculum involves. The grants for social studies, music, and libraries which these schools now share in common with other post-primary schools are proving very beneficial. Full use is being made of the extra equipment which these grants provide. Staffing appears to be a little more stable than in previous years, although cases are not uncommon where, within the year, three or four changes in one position have occurred. This, of course, is due partly to the general shortage of post-primary teachers and partly to accommodation difficulties experienced, particularly in the smaller centres. The provision made in recent regulations for country service means that all new entrants to the post-primary service must teach for a period in certain approved schools, which include most district high schools. It is hoped that this will help to lessen the present staffing difficulties in many of these schools. The new bursaries for intending postprimary teachers, to which fuller reference is made elsewhere in this report, should help also in this matter. . Special posts have, for the first time, been created m the secondary departments ot the larger district high schools, placing them on the same footing in this respect as the post-primary schools. This means that all teachers of post-primary classes, irrespective of the type of school they are in now have opportunities of appointment to positions carrying the maximum salary. (10) Grants for School Activities During 1947 the same additional grants (given in detail in the 1946 report) were paid to post-primary schools for libraries, music, and social studies as in 1946. These supplement the amounts available from incidentals, and over a period of years will do much to place these activities on a satisfactory basis. Grants of a total amount of some £3B 000 were made available to post-primary schools for equipment, and a further amount of over £5,000 to district high schools for the same purpose, while further assistance continues to be given by the distribution of equipment ex War Assets Realization Board and by various publications of the School Publications Branch distributed free to schools. Twenty-five issues of the Post-primary Bulletin have now appeared, lhe Bulletins are planned to meet the needs of the new and more flexible curriculum, and have been issued in series. The series entitled " Our Living Environment" gave a preliminary account of the animals native to New Zealand; the social-studies series dealt with the lives of New Zealanders on dairy-farms, mixed farms, high-country runs, in the mines and in the factories; and the science series aimed to show how our primary and secondary industries depend on scientific research. Other topics covered include "Music,'

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