Nelson Provincial Gazette – 1861 – No. 16

Page 87

✨ Provincial Education Report

NEW ZEALAND
GOVERNMENT GAZETTE
(PROVINCE OF NELSON).
Published by Authority.

All Public Notifications which appear in this Gazette, with any Official Signature thereunto annexed, are to be considered, as Official Communications made to those Persons to whom they may relate, and are to be obeyed accordingly.

By His Honor's command,
ALFRED DOMETT, Provincial Secretary.

VOL. IX. NELSON, MONDAY, DECEMBER 2, 1861. No. 16.

Provincial Secretary's Office, Nelson,
December 2, 1861.

HIS Honor the Superintendent directs the publication of the following Reports and Returns, for general information.

ALFRED DOMETT,
Provincial Secretary.

EDUCATION.

INSPECTOR'S REPORT.
June, 1861.

October, 1861.

To the Chairman of the
Central Board of Education, Nelson.

Although the accompanying Tables have been before the Board for the last three months, I have hitherto deferred presenting my Annual Report, for several reasons. The unusual continuance of wet weather, and other causes, which I have already stated to the Board, made my last quarterly inspection of the schools less complete and satisfactory than I could have wished ; whilst the state of the roads and the epidemic complaint, lately prevalent among the younger members of the community, here as well as in other parts of New Zealand, rendered the attendance of the children very irregular, and below the usual average. The Board also having requested me to lay before it my notes on the present state of the schools, I was anxious to bring them down to the latest possible date; and as the three months now last past complete the full period of five years from the first establishment of the present system of education, and the masters' returns on the condition of their respective schools during the past year enabled me to compare their impressions with my own, and to test their accuracy; I deferred making my Report until I had done so.

The Education Act under which the public schools of this Province are carried on has now been in operation for a sufficient length of time to test its merits and to allow us to form an opinion as to its chances of permanency. Its general principles are—an equal educational rate of £1 per annum upon all householders, with an addition of 5s. for each child between the ages of five and fourteen; schools free and open to all without further payment; Local Committees elected by the rate-payers, and having full powers of management and control; (with such reservations as the differences of religious belief render necessary ;) appointing and removing masters, laying

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