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be of the character of an industrial school in Eng-
land.

2nd. For some districts a system of Itinerant
schoolmasters is suggested, such as that adopted in
Norway, especially where facilities in the way of
accommodation were offered by station masters and
other residents. In such cases the distribution of
the teacher’s time would be regulated by the cir-
cumstances of the groups of scholars he had to
teach. In some cases he might divide his time be-
tween two groups of children on alternate days. If
again there were three such groups he might give
them each two days in the week, if the intervening
distance admitted of it, or he might give each a
longer period at one time, if the distance were too
great to admit of his going from one place to another
after school hours. With regard to the number of
hours which should be given to individual groups, it
should be observed that the evidence given to the
Commissioners in England goes to shew that 18
hours a week is often a more useful period of mental
effort than 24, and that much may be done in 12
hours a week or two hours a day, provided that
these two hours be two fresh hours in the morning.
It is impossible to lay down any rule on such a
matter, but it may be confidently asserted that if
two children or groups of children receive respec-
tively three days and six days instruction a week,
the progress of the latter will fall far short of double
that of the former.

3rd. In some cases the difficulty may be met, as
has been the case at Port Levy and Lincoln by one
of the settlers whose own children make the estab-
lishment of some means of education imperative,
taking a teacher into his own house and extending
the benefit of his teaching to his neighbour’s chil-
dren.

4th. Another plan which has to some extent been
carried out and so far as it has been carried out has
met with a considerable measure of success, has
been the provision of accommodation for boarders in
the houses of masters of schools in remote places and
agricultural centres of population bordering on the
pastoral districts, such as Riccarton, Rangiora, Ox-
ford, Leithfield, Arowhenua, Akaroa, and some of
the bays on the Peninsula. It is thought that by
this means the position of a master in an outlying
district would be rendered a more desirable one, as
he would have a means of increasing his income, and
the would moreover have a valuable incentive to
raise the character and increase the efficiency of the
school.

The Commission have had occasion to remark
the beneficial effect of the union of boarding schools
with day schools, where it already exists in this
province. If a master be a man of good character
and good abilities he obtains an influence over his
school through his boarders which he could hardly
obtain otherwise. It is thought that by this means
the position of a master in an outlying district
would be rendered more desirable, and the school
would have a means of increasing its efficiency.

or by founding exhibitions whose tenure was made
dependent upon certain conditions as to distance of
residence and the means of the children’s parents.

The claim of the applicants in such cases would
have to be decided in accordance with regulations
made by the Board.

A consideration of the different plans suggested
together with the evidence before them on these
matters, leads the Commission to the opinion that no
defined course can be prescribed in dealing with the
variety of circumstances which present themselves
in different localities.

In cases which present so many different features
a considerable discretion must be left to those who
administer the funds for educational purposes to
meet exceptional cases with exceptional treatment,
and to adopt different plans according to different
circumstances.

There are cases in which the results are appar-
ently small, but the labour bestowed has been great,
and the expenditure of funds disproportionate when
measured by an inflexible standard. It would be
obviously unfair to expect the same results in out-
lying districts as in towns where regularity of atten-
dance and a certain degree of proficiency can be
reasonably exacted. The labour expended in teach-
ing the irregular scholars will be as great as that
devoted to a much larger number of regular atten-
dants, and far less satisfactory in its results. Regula-
tions in such instances must spring from the
necessities of the case. Circumstances cannot be
moulded by preconceived laws. The difficulties
which arise with respect to the plan of having a
central boarding school lie principally in the great
expense which would be necessary to establish such
an institution; and when instituted, it is doubtful
whether many of the class for whom it was prin-
cipally intended, would have the will or the means
to defray a proper share of the necessary expenses.
Some of the difficulty might be obviated by action
being taken in concert with the supporters of the
Orphan Asylum which might be the nucleus of a
large central boarding school. With regard to
itinerant teachers, the Commission are of opinion
that there are cases in which much good would
accrue from the adoption of this plan, not only for
the teaching which a well qualified man might give
himself, but also from that which he might instigate
others to give. There are few groups of population
in which there is not a man of sufficient attain-
ment to be found, who, if supplied with proper books and
appliances, and put in the way of using them, would
be glad to supervise the progress of the children in
the absence of their regular teacher. The Commis-
sion consider the last mentioned plan of provid-
ing for boarding accommodation in the masters’
houses in schools in out-lying districts as one most
likely to be productive of general good results. They would suggest
that the master’s house at Leithfield be built with
sufficient accommodation to enable him to take in
boarders. Provisions would thus be made for the
wants of a considerable district north of the Ashley.