I have the honor to be,

Sir,

Your obedient Servant,

JOSIAH FLIGHT,
Resident Magistrate.

Alfred Domett, Esq.,
Civil Secretary, &c., &c.,
Wellington.

PUBLIC SCHOOL REPORT.

New Plymouth, 2nd August, 1852.

1. Having been appointed by His Excellency the Governor-in-Chief to the office of inspecting the Public Schools of this district, we have the honor to state now, and in conformity thereto, that we visited, on the 13th of the past month, the only establishment falling under the denomination which is, as yet, within the bounds of Taranaki. This is known by the name of the "Grey Institution," and is, as it has been from the date of its foundation, under the immediate direction and superintendence of the Rev. Henry Hanson Turton, who, for several years past has been the Wesleyan Missionary Minister of the district.

2. The site of this establishment is distant somewhat more than a mile to the South-west of this town; and has been selected very judiciously, whether as for its appointed purpose, an industrial school, or as regards the maintenance or the improvement of health among its occupants, as it stands on the crown of an eminence which is dry under foot, and fully exposed to uninterrupted perflation from whatever quarter the wind may happen to blow; and, in so far, it combines convenience that it overlooks on all sides the land which forms the scene of the school’s agricultural operations.

3. The style of the building is somewhat in imitation of simple, or plain gothic architecture; and the ground plan, including that of body and wings, exhibits the crucial form, which, however, is not followed out in the superstructure. Excepting the chimneys, which are built of brick and stone material, the building is entirely constructed of Rimu or Red Pine—a very durable, and probably the best timber our forests afford for architectural purposes, as from the resinous, or preservative principle it contains, it is found to be much less affected by time, and exposure to the vicissitudes of weather, than any other of the native woods which our artizans have yet subjected to such experiment. The building rests on piles of Puriri wood, and so that the lower floor is elevated about eighteen inches above the level of the ground, thus permitting free ventilation.

4. The façade of the building presents to the town, and is an obvious and pleasingly picturesque object therefrom; while, to vessels approaching the anchorage of our bay, it proves no less a very useful and conspicuous landmark.

5. One of the four sketches which accompany this Report (No. 1) shows the accommodations which the ground floor of the building affords. As is pourtrayed in the side-view sketch (No. 3), no other part thereof has an attic story, excepting that which includes the school-room, the matron’s apartment, the staircase and the lobby, and that is appropriated as the principal dormitory, exhibited in sketch (No. 4.) This apartment about thirty-eight feet in length, and from eighteen to twenty in breadth, cannot conveniently admit more than twenty beds; so that, as there is no other part of the establishment, excepting that formed by the left wing, whose dimensions are twenty feet by twelve only, and this breadth being inadequate for a double bank of beds, hence insufficient, without unseemly crowding, to hold more than five, it becomes somewhat imperative—if the school be to maintain from thirty to fifty pupils—that an excess of dormitory space be appended thereto. Moreover as dining-hall space is about as much a desideratum as that now mentioned, the room so appropriated being inadequate to the convenient accommodation of even the existing number of pupils at meals, we would invite attention to the extending of this also. And as the same portion of the building has reference to the now suggested enlargement of both these apartments, the execution would not be greatly more expensive than if restricted to the alteration of only one. Indeed, it is our opinion that these improvements might be conjointly accomplished at no great cost, and not disturb, but give rather a greater external unity of character to the body of the building, while it would add to the interior a clear attic space thirty-two feet long, or accommodation for sixteen more beds to the establishment, and allow a like space below, within the walls of which, when required, the maximum number of pupils could dine at one table.