parative statements therein referred to of their
progress and actual condition.

These returns are on the whole satisfactory,
whilst they show that much still remains to
be done. As duplicates of the accounts from
which they have been compiled are kept in
each school, the accuracy of these returns may
be tested in every case by reference to them.

In consequence of the additional funds
placed at the disposal of the Board, they have
had much pleasure in being able to carry out
the recommendations made by their committee
at the beginning of their term of office, and
transmitted to your Honour, respecting the
allowances to masters for rent, and also the
gratuities in certain cases therein specified.

They have also received a valuable and
much needed supply of books, &c., which they
have been allowed to purchase at a very con-
siderable reduction on the usual selling price,
by the Committee of Privy Council on Edu-
cation in England. They desire to express
their hearty thanks for this permission, of
which they propose to avail themselves in
future to a much greater extent; and have
accordingly placed funds in the hands of the
Inspector for that purpose. They will thus
be enabled to carry into effect the expressed
intentions of their lordships, that the scholars
may be encouraged to purchase such books as
may be directed to be used, at the lowest
possible cost; a measure from which they
anticipate the same beneficial results which
have followed upon its adoption elsewhere.

The Board regrets to state that difficulties
have arisen on the part of one of the Trustees
of the Nelson School property to the transfer
of the Nelson School property to the transfer
already agreed upon; and as the conditions
now proposed are in excess of those which the
Board is empowered to accede to under the
Act, there seems no present prospect that this
long-pending question is likely to be defini-
tively settled.

In other cases, where no such obstacles ex-
ist, considerable progress has been made. An
eligible site has been purchased at Stoke, and
another equally advantageous at Wakefield,
at Fox-Hill a central position for a school has
been offered to and accepted by the Board,
the inhabitants of the district being willing to
contribute liberally towards the erection of a
suitable school-house. In Waimea West two
well planned and substantial school-rooms and
masters' residences have lately been completed.

In the Motueka District a new school-room
has been built and opened for the reception of
scholars; a master's house has been built at
Riwaka, and the Board hopes shortly to heart
that the buildings now in progress at Colling-
wood and Beaver are completed, and ready for
the purposes of instruction.

I have, &c.

DONALD SINCLAIR,
Chairman.

To His Honour,
J. P. ROBINSON, Esq.,
Superintendent.

REPORT OF THE INSPECTOR OF
SCHOOLS, FOR THE HALF-YEAR END-
ING JUNE 30, 1859.

The completion of the third year during
which the present system of education has
been in operation affords a fitting opportunity,
whilst giving an account of the existing state
of the Schools, to review the past; to ascer-
tain what has been already done; and to in-
quire what remains to be done for the future.
I propose, therefore, to make such remarks
upon the annexed yearly returns of the number
of children taught in our schools, and of the
nature of the instruction received there, as will
show, by comparison with the similar returns
of last year, what progress has been made since
that time; to point out the defects which strike
me as still interfering with their usefulness or
impeding their progress; and to mention those
improvements in their management and disci-
pline which my acquaintance with them has
suggested to my mind.

I regret that the extracts from the Census
Returns to the end of 1858, published by the
General Government, do not furnish such in-
formation as would enable me to make an ac-
curate estimate of the state of education in
each district; but the particulars which are in
possession of the local Government have been
furnished to me from the office of the Provin-
cial Secretary; and these in some measure sup-
ply the want, although still rather imperfectly:
the classification of ages being different from
that which has been found most useful for edu-
cational purposes; and several districts being
grouped together which have no connection
with each other; so that the results would be
without interest to the inhabitants, as failing to
show their relative progress or positive deficien-
cies. I have extracted from these returns the
number of children in the various districts un-
der
twelve years of age, and have added the
corresponding numbers in the schools by way
of comparison :—