100

the master's salary be £80 per annum;
and where it does not exceed thirty, £85
per annum.

2. That, in all schools where the average
   attendance amounts to sixty days out of
   one hundred school days, and subject to
   the Inspector's Report, a yearly gratuity
   of from £5 to £10 or £15 be given,
   according to the state of the funds and
   other circumstances.

3. That where no house accommoda-
   tion is provided for the master, and no
   grant made for that purpose, an allow-
   ance of £10 be made for rent.

4. That the funds will not allow of
   establishing separate schools for girls, in
   cases where the local committees may
   think them desirable, unless in the schools
   already in operation there should be an
   average daily attendance of twenty girls
   at least; but that wherever arrangements
   can be made for the services, occasional
   or otherwise, of teachers for the distinc-
   tive branches of female education, the
   board should meet all contributions for
   this purpose by an equivalent grant, not
   exceeding £15 in any case.

That, in accordance with these suggestions,
the Estimate for the present Educational Year
would be as follows, taking the last Returns of
the Inspector as a basis for the calculations,
and taking the Nelson town schools as excep-
tional cases, to be separately decided afterwards
on their own merits:—

Permanent Charges, &c., of Central Board—

From the above calculation, it appears that
by reducing all salaries exceeding £85, by
suppressing the female school at Motueka,
and two or three occasional female teachers,
making no allowance for books or repairs,
granting no gratuities or allowances for rent,
and relinquishing all idea of female assistance,
at the same time calculating that the new
schools will not be in operation until the
first three months have elapsed, it may be
possible, for the present year, to meet the
increasing demands upon us without any addi-
tional grant; yet it is submitted that this is not
the object to be kept principally in view; but
that the efficient working of the scheme and
the promotion of general education are the
first considerations; that the success which
has attended our efforts, and the desire to par-
ticipate in its benefits, are the chief causes
which render an additional outlay necessary;
and that to render our operations less effective
for the purpose of extending them would be at
variance with the objects and constitution of
the board. The plan we have submitted,
whilst it fixes the salaries at the lowest rate
possible, and one which we would willingly
have raised, still furnishes a prospect of
increase and of reward for meritorious exertion;
and it leaves it optional in every district to
make whatever additions the public feeling
may judge necessary to secure the most effi-
cient masters possible.

We, therefore, recommend that the fore-
going scale of salaries be adopted by the
board, and that application be made to his
Honour the Superintendent to place such
further sum upon the Estimates as may enable
the board to extend their operations, and make
such further arrangements as may render the
schools really effective and satisfactory.

DONALD SINCLAIR,
Chairman.

REPORT OF THE INSPECTOR OF
SCHOOLS, FOR THE HALF-YEAR END-
ING JUNE 30, 1858.

SIR,—In presenting the Returns for the two
last quarters, which complete the second year
during which the present plan of education has
been in force, I am happy to be able to repeat
and confirm my former impressions as to the
generally satisfactory results which have at-
tended it. In spite of the inconveniences
produced by the uncertainty so long prevailing
with respect to the Education Amendment
Act, which prevented the collection of the rate
for many months after the proper period, thus
crippling the operations of the board, and
allowing the salaries of the schoolmasters to
fall into arrear, the schools have steadily pro-
gressed, and show altogether a larger number,
and generally a better attendance, than hereto-
fore. The public feeling with regard to the
system has been further tested by meetings