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lilies—as on Banks’ Peninsula, where each bay has its small settlement of sawyers or dairy farmers. In the more populous of these bays, schools have been already established, as in Okain’s Bay and Little Akaloa, where from the nature of the locality the inhabitants are distributed over a small area and the number of those at school bears a large proportion to the whole population. In Okain’s Bay the whole population is stated to be 170, and the number of children on the books of the week-day school is 36, or nearly one in four, while the number attending the Sunday School is 58. In Little Akaloa the inhabitants are spread over less than a mile square, and are stated to be in numbers 118—64 adults and 54 children, of whom 25 attend the school, being nearly the whole number that are of age to be at school.

In Duvauchelle’s Bay, out of a total population of about 100, there are 17 children at school; the population here is scattered round the head of the bay, over a distance of eight miles. Children come as great a distance as four miles to school. It may here be observed that distances which children are sent to school depend very much upon the efficiency of the master. Parents will send their children any reasonable distance to school when their progress in learning is of such a character as they can readily appreciate. The acquirements of their children in reading, writing, and arithmetic are productive of tangible results. A master who does not impart a knowledge of these subjects systematically, will never command the confidence of the parents generally, and by a natural consequence will lose his powers of usefulness in other ways in his school.

In some of the outlying districts the attendance in school as compared with the population is greater than in the towns. In others whose circumstances in point of the distribution of the inhabitants differ but little, the attendance is thin and irregular.

There are two schools on the Peninsula, which receive no aid from Government, but owe their origin to the exertions of private individuals. One of the wealthier settlers in these cases has extended the benefits of the education which his means enable him to give to his own children, to the children of those around him. In one school a very high class of education has been secured by this arrangement, to the children of the neighbouring settlers.

In three instances on the Peninsula boarders are taken by the master, the same is the case in another district school at Rangiora.

3rd. The third class of population is that scattered over the pastoral districts, consisting of the families of shepherds and others connected with the different stations which lie at distances of seldom less than four and mostly more than five miles from each other. In the district between the Waimakariri and the Rakaia, not including such part as lies within fifteen miles of Christchurch, it is stated by the clergyman of the district that there are about sixty children of all ages and classes. With the exception of two or three spots where freehold sections have been bought for agricultural purposes, and small centres of population established, the district is occupied by stock-owners and their dependants.

One of these centres is on the Waimakariri, about 25 miles from Christchurch, where there are as many as 18 children, within an easy distance of White’s Accommodation House.

Another centre of population is at the junction of the Selwyn with Lake Ellesmere Marshes, and another between the Lake Marshes and the River Rakaia. The freehold sections in the two last cases are large, and the population though increasing is very scattered.

From the returns of the last census it appears that in 1861, in the Cheviot district, which had a population of 1305, there were only 15 children, or 1 in 87 of the whole population, attending any school.

In the Timaru district, where a school had been established previous to the taking of the census, out of a population of 1583, 43, or 1 in 36, were at school.

In England, it should be remarked, the proportion of scholars in week-day schools of all kinds to the entire population was in the year 1858 1 in 7.7.

In Scotland, 1 in 10, which as will be seen from a table previously given, corresponds with the proportion at school in Canterbury.

In the Geraldine district, which has lately been separated from the Timaru district, and comprises the country lying between the rivers Opihi and Rangitata, it is stated that there are at present from 80 to 100 children, between the ages of 2 and 10 years. At least 60 of these in families of from 4 to 6, are scattered about the district, separated by distances of from five to ten miles.

Of the whole number not more than 30 attend school.

Arowenua is the only centre of population. The township lies near the bush, and the inhabitants are chiefly sawyers. A school has lately been established at this place, but from its situation between two branches of the Opihi regular attendance is impossible.

Various suggestions have been made to the Commission as to the means which should be adopted to meet the wants of these different classes of population in outlying districts.

1st. There are many who advocate a central boarding school in Christchurch, to which children might be sent from the outlying districts. The expenses of each child would amount to a sum varying from £25 to £35 per annum, according to the numbers obtained. In some cases the parents would be willing and able to pay the whole sum; in others, it is thought assistance might be given by the Government. Suggestions have been offered that the Orphan Asylum might be made the nucleus of a large boarding school, for the benefit of the children of residents in the outlying districts. It has been further recommended that such an institution should...