ii.

In addition to these new District Schools, the South Selwyn School has been re-opened under a duly qualified Teacher, and receives a grant at the rate of £2 per annum for every child in average attendance. A similar grant has, since last July, been bestowed on the Christchurch Convent School.

The Board has also agreed to grant a sum in aid of the Broadfield School, for six months dating from 1st January 1869, provided that such sum does not exceed the rate of £30 per annum, or the rate of £2 per annum for every child in average attendance. The Board, although it has adopted the principle of not making special grants to Schools, unless in very exceptional cases, has been willing to aid this latter School, in order to maintain it in working order until the erection of buildings in a regularly constituted Educational District, it being the wish of residents that this should be done during the course of the present year.

The total sums spent on the new Schools above mentioned, have been as follows :-

£ s. d.
Governor’s Bay North ... ... ... 400 0 0
Flaxton ... ... ... 245 19 2
Southbridge ... ... ... 280 0 0
Springston ... ... ... 242 0 0
Mount Grey Downs ... ... ... 114 0 0
Loburn ... ... ... 250 0 0

The inhabitants in each of these districts have contributed one-fourth of the cost of the erection of the respective buildings as provided by "The Education Ordinance, 1864."

The Governor’s Bay North School is situated in Governor’s Bay Proper, the School known as Governor’s Bay School, being situated at the Head of the Bay. The residents in the former district being desirous of establishing a somewhat superior School with accommodation for Boarders in the Master’s house, the Board made a grant of a sum of money in excess of that usually allowed, as the locality is well suited for a school of this description, both on account of its geographical situation, and on account of the healthiness of its climate.

A Schoolroom only has been erected in the Mount Grey Downs District, as the residents were not prepared at the time to contribute one-fourth of the cost of the erection of a Master’s house.

The Board anticipates that Schools will shortly be erected in the Educational Districts of South Selwyn, Milford (near Temuka), North Kowai, and Halkett (West Coast Road), which have been duly constituted by Proclamation of His Honor the Superintendent.

A meeting of the residents in the district lying between the Hororata and Wakaepa branches of the River Selwyn has been held with the view of forming that locality also into an Educational District.

The School buildings at Saltwater Creek having been severely damaged, and the school books totally destroyed by the floods in February 1868, the Board made a grant out of the vote for contingencies of £28 11s. 5d. in favour of the School, that sum being the estimated cost of the damage sustained. A Teacher’s residence is being erected in the Cust District, the inhabitants having paid into the Treasury one-fourth of the cost of construction.

A new building for the Girls School has been erected in the District of Rangiora by means of local contributions; in the Papanui District also, St. Paul’s School has been enlarged by the residents at a cost of about £60.

The Board being of opinion that the time has come when the grants to certain of the Schools in existence previous to the coming into force of "The Education Ordinance, 1864," should be reduced, and that the sum of £100 should be the maximum of the aid bestowed on any School, brought the subject under the notice of the Government previous to the late Session of the Provincial Council; a resolution was passed by the Council confirming the opinion of the Board, and accordingly a three months’ notice of the intended reduction was, as provided by the Ordinance, given to all Schools in receipt of a grant in excess of £100. The effect of this measure will be a saving to the Provincial Revenue of an annual sum of £417 15s.

The Legislature has also reduced the annual sum payable on behalf of the Superior Schools. Previous to the late Session of the Provincial Council an annual grant was made