Oct. 6.] THE NEW ZEALAND GAZETTE. 2493

2. Visitors admitted to a school during the hours of instruction
   shall not, without the permission of the Minister or of the teacher,
   speak, or take part in the business, or interrupt the work of the
   school.
3. The net time devoted to school work shall be four and a half
   hours daily—viz., from 9.30 a.m. to 12, and from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m.
4. If the schoolmaster is also Postmaster he shall make up
   before school time any mails that have to be despatched during
   school time, and if the post-office is also a telephone-station he shall
   make arrangements whereby some member of the family will attend
   to the telephone during school time.

IV. LEAVE OF ABSENCE.

1. Under certain circumstances leave of absence may be granted,
   but this can be obtained only by the direct sanction of the Minister,
   and every application for leave shall be accompanied by an explicit
   statement of the reason for making it. This rule shall apply to
   every member of the staff of the school recognised by the Depart-
   ment and in receipt of any salary.
2. No special holiday may be taken unless permission has been
   received from the Department. The absence without leave of any
   teacher or assistant teacher for any half-day on which this Code
   requires that school shall be held will be taken as prima facie evi-
   dence that such teacher or assistant teacher has resigned.

V. ATTENDANCE REGISTERS AND RETURNS.

1. The head teacher of each school shall keep a register of
   attendance in a form which shall be furnished by the Department ;
   and all the teachers in the school shall assist in making up weekly
   and quarterly summaries of attendance.
2. The attendance of scholars in each school shall be registered
   every morning and every afternoon, provided that in no case shall
   the register be marked later than one hour and a half before the
   close of morning or afternoon school, as the case may be. The
   register shall be marked and kept in accordance with the instructions
   printed thereon.
3. The attendance of a child at morning school shall be reckoned
   as one attendance, and the attendance of a child at afternoon school
   shall be reckoned as one attendance, and a school open in the
   morning and open in the afternoon shall be deemed to have been
   opened twice.
4. The school shall be held to be open any morning or afternoon
   if one child be present before the first half-hour of the ordinary
   school time has passed.
5. The average daily attendance for any period shall be ascer-
   tained by first throwing out of account what shall be called “ex-
   cepted” half-days—that is, every morning or afternoon on which
   the attendances have numbered less than one-half of the number of
   pupils belonging to the school—and by throwing out of account the
   attendances also of every such morning and such afternoon, and
   then by dividing the remaining number of attendances by the
   remaining number of half-days.
6. On the day on which the head teacher of a school first knows
   that a pupil has been definitely removed from his school, such head
   teacher shall record the removal in the admission register and in
   the register of daily attendance. He shall record also that a pupil
   has left the school when such pupil has been absent for any period
   of sixty-five consecutive school days. Such pupils shall forthwith
   be considered as ceasing to belong to the school, and in any com-
   putation of average attendance for any period thereafter their names
   shall not be taken into account in any way.
7. The head teacher of each school shall, after the end of each
   quarter, transmit to the Department a return exhibiting, in the form
   prescribed, the state of the school roll and of the attendance for
   such quarter.
8. At the beginning of each year a new register of daily attend-
   ance shall be opened. When the number of scholars attending,
   or likely to attend, is large, it will be convenient to keep one book
   for boys and another for girls. The names of children shall be
   entered in order according to their respective classes.
9. In cases where from any cause, such as bad weather, the
   school has not been open in the morning, the teacher shall do what
   he can to encourage an afternoon attendance, if possible, in order
   that the school work may be done regularly and efficiently. The
   holding of the afternoon school must in no way be made to depend
   on the morning attendance.