families resident in the bush, and on the shores of the numerous bays which fringe the Harbor, whose children, owing to the want of roads through the bush, cannot possibly attend with safety either of the two well-taught schools now established there.

From the report of others, and from my own observation in the course of a journey from Portobello Bay to East Harbor, I am led to believe that there are not a few families on the Peninsula, and almost within sight of Dunedin, now living without the means of religious or secular instruction, and whose children are growing up in a condition utterly rude and uncultivated.

State of the Schools.

With two exceptions, the teachers of the several schools appear to have performed their duties generally in a satisfactory manner, and the School Committees, and the settlers generally, have expressed their approval of the conduct of their respective teachers during the past year. While it will not be expected that I should at present express publicly any opinion respecting the comparative efficiency of the different schools, I considered it right to make mention of the peculiar excellencies by which some of them are characterized. In the well-taught school of Wakari I was much pleased with the precision and thoroughness with which the different classes acquitted themselves, and especially with the accuracy and the distinctness of enunciation which marked their reading lessons, both in prose and verse. The school at East Taieri, while successfully taught in all its departments, greatly excelled in Arithmetic. The accuracy and expedition with which the exercises selected by me were performed by almost all the scholars in the different arithmetic classes, I never saw surpassed. I was much pleased with the heartiness and the success with which religious instruction is communicated and enforced by the teacher of Tokomairiro school, and with the general intelligence of the pupils in all the classes. The scholars attending Waikouaiti school are carefully trained by their teacher in the application of arithmetic to the purposes of everyday life. Each class is well-exercised in mental arithmetic; and as an exercise in mensuration and proportion some boys were sent with a foot-rule to take the dimensions of different doors and windows, and to calculate the cost of the same at so much per square yard. This teacher also very successfully instructs his pupils in the theory and practice of music, and, so far as I am qualified to judge, the singing which I heard in his school was of a superior description: He has secured in an eminent degree the affections of his pupils, and he manifests much interest in the exercises of the play-ground, where he has erected a rotatory and a common swing, which are in constant requisition during play-hours.

In several other schools the progress and proficiency exhibited by those of the pupils who had been somewhat regular in their attendance were very satisfactory. The organization and discipline continue to be well maintained in nearly all the schools.

Religious Instruction.

The children generally appear to be well acquainted with Bible History, and especially with the Life and Precepts of the Saviour; and as far as I am able to judge, they are taught their duty to God, themselves, and to others, by the example as well as the precept, of their respective teachers.

The essential Branches of Common School Education.

I have occasionally observed a tendency on the part of some of the teachers to devote an undue amount of time, and attention to the higher branches of education, even when the more elementary and indispensable ones had been very imperfectly acquired. No doubt, it is very desirable that the largest possible amount of education and training should be received in school; but when, as is unfortunately the case with many of those who attend our district schools, the period of attendance is limited, care must be taken that due prominence is given to the more indispensable branches. Our district schools, as a rule, can furnish only a foundation upon which the whole subsequent life must erect a superstructure; and it is vastly more important that the foundation should be strongly and fitly laid than that it should contain a great variety of materia. There are some branches which are necessary for all, and should form a part of every system of instruction, whatever the pupil may afterwards be destined for. Reading, writing, and arithmetic are indispensable requisites, and a thorough knowledge of these, with their practical application, and an acquaintance with grammar, geography, and British History ought to be possessed by every youth of our land before leaving school. The knowledge of these, however, should not be of a merely superficial or mechanical description. The instruction in them must be thorough and systematic. The scholars in learning these must learn principles, and should be able to understand and to reproduce for practical purposes all they pass over. I shall, therefore, consider it my duty to discountenance any attempt to introduce and give prominence