114
NELSON GOVERNMENT GAZETTE.

38 writers who could be classed as "good." I have
intentionally excepted from the list Westport, which
furnished almost as many good writers as all the
rest of the West Coast schools.

Arithmetic.—The results of my examination in
arithmetic compare unfavorably with those obtained
in 1875. Although more than 500 names have been
added to the school rolls during the past year, I
have recorded actually fewer passes in two of the four
standards by which the scholars were tested, while in
the two lower standards the passes are relatively
fewer. In the highest grade, especially, there is a
falling off of nearly a sixth, although the paper was
scarcely so difficult as that given last year.

Grammar.—I last year congratulated our teachers
on their having wisely devoted part of the time for-
merly spent in learning the minutiae of grammar to
the practice of composition. Several teachers have
evidently understood me to mean that the study of
grammar might well be given up altogether. But
it is not too much to expect that the first class in a
school of even second-rate pretensions should be
able to parse correctly an ordinary sentence. A few
minutes given daily to the study of the simple
grammars with which our schools are supplied,
ought to bring about this result in twelve months,
with children of average ability.

Geography.—My repeated remonstrances as to the
way in which this, to children, most interesting sub-
ject, was being mis-taught, have at last brought
about some reformation. Oral teaching, before the
maps, is becoming the rule, instead of the exception,
and the children can now usually tell something
about the land they live in. By steadily refraining
from putting questions on the minuter details of the
geography of Europe—which was at one time almost
all that was attempted—an examiner will eventually
succeed in getting the broader features of geography
taught. Subsequent reading and observation may
fairly be trusted to fill up these outlines as occasion
requires.

History.—A still further diminution has taken
place in the number of children learning History.
In 1875 these numbered 729; there are now only
584. I can discover no other explanation of this
continued falling off, but that for the last two years
the gratuitous issue of histories has been put a stop
to, and that a larger proportion of parents do not,
apparently, think the teaching of history worth the
three shillings required for a school book. The result
of my examination of those who still learn
history has certainly not been such as to impress
me with a high opinion of the value of this subject
in elementary schools. As might have been expected
from their tender years, I found that comparatively
few of our scholars have any clear or connected ideas
of what they are about, their answers showing that
the subject is too big for them. The extreme diffi-
culty of obtaining an elementary History of Eng-
land that is at once unobjectionable on religions
grounds—brief enough, without being dry, and yet
long enough to omit nothing of the first importance
—is also a serious obstacle. Such a skeleton as Ince
and Gilbert's gives little that is of any value beyond
mere names and dates. Miss Thompson's Epitome,
though far superior in point of fullness and accuracy,
must be insufferably dull reading for children of
twelve years old, and that reason, is very un-
likely to take much hold on their memories. Miss
Corner's book, independently of its faults of style,
has the grave defect of being unhistorical that is,
it fails to give a faithful representation of things as
they befel.

Spelling continues to be so well taught that it may
now be fairly reckoned the best point in our Pro-
vincial schools. Considering how largely the ability
to spell correctly, and to write a bold legible hand
may affect a person's future, I think our teachers
act wisely in devoting what some may think a dis-
proportionate amount of time to these more
mechanical acquirements.

Discipline.—It is gratifying to be able to report
that the perpetual chattering of which I complained
last year, and from which so few, even of our best
schools, were free, has, to a great extent, been put a
stop to, so far at least as my own observation goes.
It is now the rule, and not, as last year, the exception,
for classes to approach and leave the teacher's desk,
and to enter and leave school in an orderly and
becoming manner. In one respect, also, the
organisation of our schools has improved. The
number of classes, in compliance with my repeated
suggestions, has been diminished, and now seldom
exceeds six, even where two teachers are employed.

Bridge-street, Boys', First Division : Mr Price.—
(26.)—It is by no means easy, within the compass of
a necessarily brief report, to give such an account of
the present state of this division of Bridge-street
school as will be an exact record of the facts, without
doing some injustice to the master, who has now been
in office for about eight months. Owing to various
causes, one of which was the appointment of several
temporary masters in quick succession, this division
had become thoroughly disorganised when Mr Price
took charge of it. Nor, it must be admitted, has it
yet recovered to any appreciable extent under his
management from the low condition in which he
found it. It would seem to be out of his power to
raise even the number of his scholars to the
standard of former years. Although I promoted, in
February last, 16 well-trained boys from the second
division, I found altogether only 26 scholars present
at my examination, amongst whom were few of the
draft sent in so lately. In arithmetic the boys
generally fell far short of the standard of our best
country schools, while only one boy in the first class
could write a few lines from dictation without a mis-
take. On the other hand, the boys as a rule read
well, and gave good definitions of the meanings of
the harder words that they met with. On the whole,
I regard the present condition of this division of the
school as very unsatisfactory.

Bridge-street, Boys', Second and Third Divisions :
Mr Sadd; Mr Wigzell, temporary assistant.—(90.)—
I found the boys here carefully and sensibly taught,
and in excellent order, but as the whole of the first
class had been swept away to the first division less
than four months before my examination, this part
of the school appeared to great disadvantage. To
remedy the unfairness of promoting the best
scholars so shortly before my main examination in
June, arrangements have been made by which all
promotions in the town schools shall take place after
the mid-winter holidays, so that drafts may have
twelve months preparation before they are finally
reported on. Many heart-burnings will be avoided
by this change.

First Division, Hardy-street : Mrs Sait.—(53.)—
So highly is the quality of the instruction given in
this school valued that a large proportion of the
girls remain after they have completed their four-