JUNE 25.] THE NEW ZEALAND GAZETTE. 1813

25. If the people in the district wish religious services to be held in the schoolroom they shall make an application to the Director and obtain his sanction. After all such services the room shall be properly cleaned and set in order for the school work of the following day at the cost of those persons who were permitted the use of the school.

26. The schoolroom shall be available for use as a polling-place for the election of a member of the General Assembly, if so required by the Returning Officer.

27. Teachers as occupiers of the residences shall be responsible for the proper care of the buildings, and shall be required to undertake such repairs as in the opinion of the Department are due to negligence and not to fair wear-and-tear.

28. The teacher’s occupation of the schoolhouse and of the land allotted to the teacher’s use is hereby declared to be an occupancy by sufferance only.

29. The teacher shall not let the school residence or allow the buildings to be occupied by any other person, except with the sanction of the Director first obtained.

30. As the necessity arises the teacher shall effect such small repairs as are required to maintain the residence, the fences, and the gates in good order and condition. The garden shall be cared for, and the teacher shall do such work on the remainder of the school grounds as will keep them in good order. It is to be understood that in all cases the school-site is intended for school purposes, and that a teacher’s right to use a portion of it for private purposes is subject to the condition that the efficiency of the school and the necessities of the children are not, in the opinion of the Director, impaired thereby.

31. No alterations or additions of any kind shall be made to existing buildings, nor shall additional buildings or sheds be erected without the authority of the Director.

32. When a teacher vacates his position he shall leave all the premises clean and tidy for his successor; neglect in this respect will be held highly unbecoming in the teacher.

33. The school shall be kept open from Monday till Friday (inclusive) in each week. The school hours shall be from 9.30 a.m. to 12.30 p.m., and from 1.30 p.m. to 3.30 p.m. An interval of ten minutes shall be observed during the course of the morning school, and of five minutes during the course of the afternoon school.

34. The time-table shall be displayed in a conspicuous position in the schoolroom, and the work of the school shall be carried on as far as possible in accordance therewith.

35. If the teacher 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 not on his staff will attend to the telephone during school time.

36. Visitors admitted to a school during the hours of instruction shall not, without the permission of the Director or of the teacher, speak to the children or interrupt the work of the school.

37. With a view to the proper training of their pupils teachers shall carry out all their school duties with punctuality and regularity. They are further required to encourage, both by precept and personal example, habits of personal neatness and cleanliness in their pupils.

38. The conduct of pupils in the playground shall be carefully supervised by the teacher in person; and in schools where two or more teachers are employed one of them shall be in the playground during the intervals. Teachers are also, as far as possible, to see to the proper behaviour of their pupils on their way to and from school.

39. The teacher’s discipline should be mild but firm, his manner kind and cheerful, and calculated to win the confidence of his pupils, and his language must be marked by the strictest propriety. In the government of the school all degrading and injurious punishments, and the use of objectionable epithets or forms of address, shall be avoided. In particular no teacher shall strike a pupil on the head. A violation of this rule will make the offending teacher liable to dismissal.

40. Corporal punishment may, as a last resort, be inflicted by means of a strap by the head teacher himself, or, with his permission, by an experienced assistant teacher, and the head teacher shall at once enter the particulars in the log-book.

41. Corporal punishment may be inflicted for offences against morality, for gross impertinence, or for wilful and persistent disobedience. It must not be inflicted for failure or inability to learn, or for trivial breaches of school discipline. Too frequent punishment will be regarded as indicating