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NELSON GOVERNMENT GAZETTE.

Upper Wakefield: (59 present)—Mr Chamberlain, assistant Miss Tunnicliff.—This school has suffered much from frequent changes of teachers, as well as from the habitual withdrawal of the more promising scholars at a very early age. The present master, who has held his appointment only nine months, has effected a considerable improvement in handwriting and arithmetic. There is much lost ground to be made up in other respects. I was favorably impressed with the discipline and careful preparation of the lower classes. The older scholars struck me as being exceedingly noisy.

Foxhill: (13 present)—Mr H. Ladley.—No further explanation of the backwardness of the dozen children who were present at my last examination will be necessary than the bare statement that three masters have been engaged in experimentalising upon them during the twelve months. The present master, who, like his two predecessors, is quite inexperienced, promises well, though I see no reason for altering the opinion I expressed two years ago as to the expediency, but on economical and on educational grounds, of consolidating the Upper Wakefield and Foxhill schools.

Motupiko: (14 present)—Mrs Fugle—I regret that I can record no improvement here, during the past year. In one respect, indeed, there is a decided falling off. The extra-ordinary drawl with which all the children (with one exception) read, and which showed some symptom of abatement last year, is more noticeable than ever. The writing is slovenly, the spelling full of mistakes, and three out of four of the children that I set were brought up wrong. Nevertheless the rate of attendance, 75 per cent, is exceptionally high.

Waimea West: North Division (40 present)—Mr Thorburn, assisted by Miss Thorburn.—The present school, if compared with its former self, is in a very unsatisfactory state. While the number of children over 12 years of age has more than doubled during the year, the number of good readers is only half as many as in 1872. The good writers are fewer by a third, the arithmeticians by two-thirds. Though little is attempted beyond reading, arithmetic, and writing, the school is now relatively backward in the two former branches. The reason assigned by the master for this falling off—of which he is fully conscious—is the irregular attendance of the younger scholars, who are engaged in flax-cutting. This explanation is insufficient, however, to account for the backwardness of the junior classes, nor is it altogether consistent with the high average of attendance, 73 per cent.

Waimea West Village: (28 present)—Late Mr and Mrs Larchin.—All that energy and skill on the part of teachers could do has been done to raise the standard of this hitherto backward school. Nor have these efforts been altogether barren of result. The reading throughout is much better than it was—there is a moderate improvement in arithmetic, and a better style of penmanship than formerly. Mr and Mrs Larchin have been transferred to Westport. It is not surprising that teachers who have their hearts in their work should be anxious to leave a school where only 22 children out of a roll of 57 have attended during the last quarter. Here, as at Stoke, an alteration in the time of giving the summer holidays is required, on account of the absence of the scholars at hop-picking during a large part of the March quarter.

Upper Moutere: (42 present)—Mr and Mrs Cook.—The characteristics that have always marked this school still prevail. A moderate standard of attainment—a thoroughness in teaching whatever is attempted—excellent discipline—regular attendance, and a singularly good feeling between parents and scholars on one side, and teachers on the other.

Neudorf: (41 present)—Mr and Mrs Desaunais.—The improvement in reading that I noticed last year still continues, the children throughout speaking more articulately than formerly. Writing is also more successfully taught, but the arithmetic is still slow and mechanical. The rate of attendance, though low, has improved.

Lower Moutere: (45 present)—Mr Robson, pupil teacher Jas. Robson, junior.—I need say little more about this excellent school than that the numbers in attendance continue to increase, and that the teaching in every branch is quite up to the high standard of former years. It struck me, however, that too much talking was allowed among the scholars when at work at their desks. Making every allowance for the difference, that every good teacher understands, between the noise of work and mere talkativeness, I think that an undue latitude of speech is tolerated here.

Motueka: 1st Division (45 present)—Mr Bisley, pupil teacher, Miss Leech.—In respect of both discipline and teaching, Motueka stands in the front rank of our schools. A most praiseworthy feature is the impartiality with which the master bestows his attention upon all his classes. By a recent arrangement the control of both divisions of the school is now vested in the master, a system that ought to be adopted where-ever practicable. The extraordinarily low rate of attendance, 62 per cent, is just as unaccountable, and, I may add, as discreditable to the neighborhood, as that at Haven-road.

Motueka: 2nd Division (43 present)—Miss Guy.—The children in this division are admirably prepared for the upper department, and are kept in excellent order. I have noticed that the reading is singularly distinct, and that great pains are taken to ground the children in the multiplication and other tables, a point often neglected until it is too late.

Ngatimoti: (29 present)—Mr Sutcliffe.—Considerable progress has been made here during the past twelve months. This is doubtless partly due to the better rate of attendance, which has risen from 59 to 71 per cent; but more is fairly attributable to the energy of the master, who has done much towards awakening the interest of a listless set of scholars. These acquitted themselves remarkably well in mental arithmetic, read fairly, and wrote better than they did last year.

Dovedale: (14 present)—Mr Sterling.—The present teacher had been at work only five months when I inspected his school. A daily attendance of 11, and an average attendance of 47 per cent. during a season when the roads have been excellent and the weather almost invariably fine, hold out but slender encouragement to a teacher whose zeal and evident aptitude for his calling deserve better things. To give a detailed account of the attainments of children taught under such conditions would be a waste of time.

Pangatotara Upper and Lower: Half-time Schools—(Upper School 17 present, Lower School 14)—Mr Brown.—As my special report on the operation of the half-time system in these two schools has been already considered by the Board, I need only repeat my opinion that the sooner this system is discontinued here the better. I cannot accept an average of 3½ half-days, or in all 7½ schools hours a week as being anything like a substitute for an education. And it ought not to be forgotten that this miserable result was all that could be attained while the experiment had the attraction of novelty, and while the weather was of an exceptional fineness. And it is not just to the master, who has lately been transferred to Hope, to say that he apparently did his best to carry out the experiment effectively.