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There is much difference between Committees in these respects. Some Committees meet regularly, make periodical visits and receive reports of progress; whilst others only meet to elect masters or to determine questions relative to expenditure. In one case that occurred lately, a master on leaving, after a residence of fifteen months, applied for a certificate of good conduct and ability, and was told in reply that it could not be granted, inasmuch as none of the Committee had visited the school during the time he had been there. I believe that this apparent neglect in some cases arises from misapprehension; from believing that a visit to the school must of necessity entail an examination of the children.

The members of Committees are not generally aware that their mere presence in the school from time to time, quietly listening to the teaching of the master and the answers of the children, is useful in itself; it stimulates the children, and is cheering and satisfactory to every master who has his heart in his work, as a proof of interest in it, and an opportunity of showing how it is performed.

The means of also testing the condition of a school are easy and at hand. From every school a return is required by the Board yearly (of which the Return No. 3 is an abstract), giving the names, ages, attendance, and educational state of each child in the school for the previous year and a duplicate copy is kept for reference in the school. Taking this as a guide, and examining indiscriminately any half-dozen children present; or taking a class and testing its acquaintance with any one subject, as Geography, Arithmetic, Grammar, or Reading and Spelling, a tolerably correct judgment may be arrived at, without going through the whole school, or examining it in all that is taught. I have before mentioned this plan, and I revert to it because it seems to me important; both as a help to Committees in performing their duties, and as a valuable record of the general state and progress of the school. By reference to it the career of each child may be traced from his entrance until he leaves the school.

The Board now also requires that the Masters' Quarterly Returns of Attendance should be certified by the Chairman of the Local Committee, thus bringing the state of the school and the attendance of the children, who are personally known to them, directly before them once in three months at least.

But the most important part of the Committees duty is the choice of masters when vacancies occur. Very few candidates have had any previous training or practice in teaching; and the certificate required merely tests their general knowledge; but does not and cannot give any information as to their teaching power. I think no engagement should be made at first for a longer time than three months; and I think also that the notice of a vacancy is generally too short to allow of its becoming known to all those who might be qualified and willing to offer themselves.

There has always been sufficient anxiety to fill up a vacancy; but I believe that in some cases a temporary closure of the school would be preferable to an appointment made without sufficient consideration or knowledge of the candidates' qualifications; and there is always a natural disinclination, without strong grounds of dissatisfaction, to remove a master from a post to which he has been once appointed. For after all the master makes the school.

There is very little difference in the character of our various districts, or in that of their population; although there are exceptional cases; and, the number within a certain area being the same, the educational state of a school and the attendance of children depend upon the ability, the manner, and the attention of the master. Even where other and local reasons exist to modify this rule, and it becomes difficult to assign a reason for the want of success, the very failure appears to me sufficient to warrant a change; and I have on several occasions advised masters under such circumstances to tender their resignation although I could find no fault with their qualifications.

To say that the state of our schools has improved and is still improving, is in other words to give the character of the masters as a body: and I am glad to say that the number of schools where the instruction given by the master satisfies the parents of the children is on the increase.

As to what that instruction should be, and what constitutes an effective school, I have already given my opinion on several occasions; not indeed as to what it should be absolutely, for on that subject books have been written and conclusions arrived at by many thoroughly qualified both by talent and opportunity to pronounce a judgment; but as to what may be fairly expected in a colony like this.

To make education really what it might and ought to be, we should have trained masters. In default of these, we must for the most part be satisfied with such results as can fairly be expected from those who have received a tolerable education and have a natural aptitude for teaching.

With the aids which the Board has enabled me to offer to the masters, and the variety of