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or stimulus was required; not dealing out its funds to those who wanted least, but to those who wanted most.

Upon the principles here enunciated, the following would be the mode of apportioning the funds available for education, which the Commission recommend:—

1st. The school-fees should be strictly confined to the benefit of the school from which they are derived.

2nd. The rate should be returned to the district in which it arises.

3rd. The proportion of the Customs’ revenue should be at the disposal of the Board, subject to an annual appropriation by the Provincial Council for the assistance of such schools as appear most to need assistance, beyond that derived from the funds raised within the district. The rate should of course be a general rate throughout the province, but the apportionment of the proceeds should be made according to districts.

The machinery for levying the rate does not appear (where the plan has been tried) to present any difficulties; the system pursued in Nelson, for instance, is one which appears to be the simplest and most effectual. In that province notice is given by the Superintendent to those from whom the rate is due, by advertisement in the public papers, and by affixing a list of the ratepayers in some conspicuous place within the district, and making known the time and place at which the rate is to be paid. A collector attends on the day and at the place mentioned, and every ratepayer is expected to bring or send his rate, defaulters after a certain time being summoned for the amount due.

With regard to the manner in which it is proposed that a saving should be made without diminishing the present efficiency of the schools, it appears to the Commissioners that it would be possible to make arrangements for amalgamating some of the schools where an unnecessary multiplication has taken place.

The above remarks have reference, it will be observed, to the provision to be made for meeting only the current expenditure on Education; there is another portion which, though perhaps not of such vital importance to the maintenance of a permanent and efficient system is, yet one which demands the greatest and most serious attention.

This may be designated in contradistinction to the other—the permanent expenditure, or that incurred for objects of a permanent nature, such as the erection of buildings, the acquisition of sites, the furnishing of the schools and all those expenses which are required on the establishment of any new school. It is that part of the expenditure which, when once met does not recur a second time. This will for a time, until the inhabitants settle round permanent centres, form a very important item.

It differs from the current expenditure in this, that if at any time there should be an insufficient supply of funds, the falling off, however much to be regretted, as an obstacle to that uninterrupted progress which is so desirable, would not, as explained in the case of the current expenditure, be actually a retrograde movement; it would not be, as in that case, an undoing of what had been done before—a receding from ground already gained. On this view of the case, it is conceived the question of the establishment of new schools might very properly, and perhaps for many reasons most conveniently, be left to the decision of the Legislature. The increase in the number of schools might very fairly be made dependent on an annual vote, thus coming under the general law which governs the rest of the Government expenditure, and being regulated by the state of the revenue, and the exigencies of the public service.

But although that continuous supply of funds for the establishment of new schools is not so absolutely indispensable as in the case of those required for the maintenance of schools already established, still it would be very desirable that some provision should be made, at least for future years, for creating a separate revenue, to be exclusively available for defraying this branch of the expenditure. It appears to the Commissioners that present circumstances offer opportunities, every year becoming fewer, of acquiring property, which in the course of time may be expected to relieve the general revenue entirely from this remaining charge.

The plan of making reserves of land as endowments for educational purposes is now being tried in Auckland, and though the system has not as yet been in operation long enough to produce any revenue, and thus to show any good result of a positive kind, yet so far as negative results go, the experience of that province seems to be in its favor. It does not appear that any evils have been occasioned by it, while it seems clear that when the lands reserved become of value, they will be of great service to the cause of education generally; and, indeed, if reserved on a sufficiently large scale, may eventually be made to support a very considerable portion, if not the whole of the expenditure now borne by the State, thus relieving not only the general revenue of the province, but also perhaps superseding the necessity of a rate.

Besides the reservation of lands as endowments for the establishment and maintenance of schools, the Commission would strongly urge upon the Government the expediency of taking immediate steps for reserving lands as sites for schools wherever it may appear even remotely probable that centres of population will be formed, and more especially they would recommend that no time should be lost in securing sites wherever new townships have been opened.

It may be a question worth considering, whether lands reserved as endowments should be available generally for the purposes of the whole province, or whether the benefits to be derived from them should be confined to particular localities or districts. It appears to the Commission that the former would be the preferable plan, considering that the endowments