THE NEW ZEALAND GOVERNMENT GAZETTE,

(PROVINCE OF NELSON.)

Published by Authority.

All 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.

ALFRED GREENFIELD, Provincial Secretary.

VOL. XX. NELSON, SATURDAY, AUGUST 12, 1871. No. 23.

Superintendent's Office,
Nelson, 11th August, 1871.

THE SUPERINTENDENT directs the publication of the following Report and Returns for general information.

ALFRED GREENFIELD,
Provincial Secretary.

ANNUAL REPORT OF THE INSPECTOR OF PUBLIC SCHOOLS.

To the CHAIRMAN of the CENTRAL BOARD of EDUCATION.

SIR,—I have to record, for the first time, a slight falling off in the number of children entered on the Annual Return (3298), as compared with the last year's roll, which showed 89 more names. This apparent decrease is mainly due, I believe, to the more stringent regulations that have been adopted lately, with the view of checking the purposeless changes of scholars from school to school. These were at one time so frequent as to form a serious hindrance to discipline and progress in some schools, and had the effect of unfairly swelling the yearly returns, by causing the same names to be repeated several times. In proof of this view of the case, the average number on the rolls during the four last quarters is 2620, an increase of 125 on last year's returns, the daily attendance for the same period, 1797, being greater by 69.

On the whole, a fair advance has been made in the most important subjects taught in our schools, the "good" readers and "good" writers for this year numbering respectively 75 and 63 more than they did in 1870, while those who have passed in the higher rules of Arithmetic, from Practice upwards, count 857 against 631 last year. The numbers under the heads Geography, History, and Grammar, are about stationary.

When the satisfactory nature of these results is considered, the fact that the number of children remain at school after the completion of their twelfth year is steadily decreasing, and indeed, is less now than it was in 1869,—not relatively, but actually less—must be admitted to tell in favor of our teachers as a body, just as much as it reflects discredit upon such parents as persist in withdrawing their little ones from school with a maimed and imperfect education. It would almost seem as if the superior teaching of late years has in many cases merely had the effect of abridging the pupils' school life.

I have for some time felt that the columns showing roughly the educational proficiency of our schools, though corrected to a certain extent by my brief estimate of each school, do bare justice, either to our system as a whole, or to the best of our schools. My meaning will be best explained by an illustration. It has been my practice, at each annual examination, to set the same Arithmetic paper, containing perhaps eight questions in Fractions, Decimals, &c., to the more advanced classes in every school. All who can work one or two of the sums are recorded in Column 4. But in some schools the whole of the first class may succeed in solving almost every question on the paper, and yet take no higher position on the return than those who have barely passed. These returns, therefore, furnish but an imperfect measure of the comparative excellence of our schools, and tend somewhat to encourage mediocrity. I am aware that no system of tabulated statements, however elaborate, will fully represent what may be termed the inner life of a good school,