Jan 11.] THE NEW ZEALAND GAZETTE. 33

subjects named in clause 6 hereof, and under the conditions set out in that clause, except that the proviso contained in the first paragraph of the clause shall not be held to apply, and that when the pupil reaches the standard required for a Lower Leaving Certificate the requirements of the course prescribed may be deemed to be satisfied if the pupil receives at least 4 units of instruction of a higher standard in English, at least 4 units of like standard in each of two other subjects named in clause 3 of the regulations for secondary-school certificates, together with instruction in other subjects so selected in accordance with the provisions of clause 6 hereof that the total number of units completed each year is not in general less than 20.

(ii.) The technical high school shall give to each senior free pupil vocational and technical instruction in continuation and advance of the courses prescribed for junior free pupils. Not less than 20 units of work must be completed each year.

GENERAL.

11. As a condition of admission to a free place, any candidate may be required to furnish to the principal of the school to which admission is sought reasonable evidence of good character.

12. Notwithstanding the foregoing regulations, the school shall not be required to admit pupils to free places at any other time than the beginning of the school year, unless it shall seem expedient to the governing body of the school to admit such pupils at any other time.

13. In case there shall not be sufficient accommodation at the school for all pupils seeking admission to the school, those qualified as holders of scholarships under paragraph (a) of clause 3, and under paragraph (a) of clause 7 hereof, shall first be admitted, next applicants qualified by attainment for senior free places, and then the remaining applicants in such order as the Minister, after consultation with the Board, shall determine.

14. (i.) A free place, whether held at a secondary school, district high school, or technical high school, or held partly at one and partly at another, shall be reckoned continuously from the date of the original admission of the pupil to a free place in the school first attended.

(ii.) Except as hereinafter provided or as the Director of Education may decide, any intermission of attendance exceeding a period of three months in duration shall be deemed to determine the free place; further, the free place held by a pupil whose attendance during any term or quarter falls below 50 per cent. of the possible total of attendance at the school shall, with a like exception, be deemed to have lapsed as at the close of the period specified.

(iii.) If, on a report from the governing body of the school or from an Inspector of Schools, it shall appear to the Director of Education that the attendance, conduct, diligence, or progress of any free pupil is not satisfactory, he may forthwith, or after due warning, determine the free place. In any case under review a special report may be required.

(iv.) Any junior or senior free pupil who has forfeited his free place shall not be eligible for a free place of the same kind, junior or senior respectively, at any other school.

15. (i.) Except as provided for in clause 16 hereof, the holder of a free place at one school shall not be allowed to transfer his free place to another school.

Provided that, in special cases where it is shown to the Director's satisfaction that the free pupil is unable to obtain at the school he is attending instruction in the subjects required for the course of study he desires to follow, such free pupil may, with the consent of the Director previously obtained, continue his free place for the unexpired period thereof at another school.

Provided further that a junior or senior free pupil who leaves a secondary school, or a district high school, or a technical high school to take up employment at any time before the completion of the tenure of his free place shall be eligible to continue his free place at a technical school for the unexpired period thereof.

(ii.) A pupil who has completed his tenure of a junior or senior free place at one school shall not be eligible to hold a similar free place—junior or senior, as the case may be—at another school.

(iii.) Nothing in this clause shall be taken to prevent a pupil who has qualified for but has not entered upon a senior free place while attending one school from entering upon a senior free place at another school.

16. (i.) Any free pupil whose parents, after his admission to one school, shall remove more than five miles from the school at which his free place is held may continue to hold his free place at another school nearer his home, and such other school shall admit him accordingly on the same terms as if he had remained at the first-named school, provided that a secondary school