to other subjects of study, when such evidently lead to the neglect or the imperfect acquisition of the indispensable branches I have specified.

Reading.

In several of the schools the reading lessons were gone over in a slovenly and imperfect manner. Too little importance appears to be attached by some of the teachers to this important department of school instruction. Even when the pupils seemed to be well acquainted with the sense of the lesson, the reading was often characterized by a want of distinct enunciation, fluency, and expression. It may be unreasonable to expect that a pure English accent should be generally acquired in our district schools, but there is an accuracy of pronunciation and a distinctness of enunciation which everywhere distinguish the well-educated from the uneducated man or woman, and this accuracy and this distinctness it should be the object of every teacher to secure. I must, however, reserve to a future occasion my remarks on the manner in which I conceive reading and the other essential branches of education may be most successfully taught in our district schools.

Operation of the New Ordinance.

As far as I have been able to judge, the provisions of the new Education Ordinance seem to meet with the approval generally of the School Committees and of intelligent settlers, and there is evident in many of the districts a determination fairly and fully to carry these into successful operation. The chief, and indeed the only difficulty that seems to be apprehended, is the expense and trouble that will probably attend the assessing of the property, and the levying of the school rate. The maps of the different educational districts which your Honor has caused to be prepared for the use of the committees will greatly facilitate the labors of the assessors; and as the trouble and cost of preparing the assessment roll will be comparatively trifling after the work of the first year has been accomplished, I believe that the anticipated difficulties will eventually prove much less formidable than they at present appear.

Teachers’ Incomes.

The School Committees generally have manifested a disposition to deal liberally with the teachers in respect of salary. In South Dunedin the annual salary is £250. In North Dunedin, Oamaru, N.E. Valley, and Caversham, the Committees have resolved to pay £200. In the Clutha district, which comprises three Main Schools, each of the teachers receives £135 of fixed salary, and all the school fees, which last year averaged £30 each. In Tokomairiro the salary is £180, and in nearly all the other districts the Main School teachers receive either £150, or a fixed salary of £100, together with the fees, which will average upwards of £50 each.

Pupil Teachers.

The large and increasing attendance at several of the schools render necessary the immediate introduction of the scheme authorised by the Education Ordinance for the employment and training of Apprentice Pupil Teachers in the most numerously attended and best conducted schools. I will, on an early occasion, submit to the consideration of the Board a set of proposed regulations respecting pupil teachers.

Teachers’ Associations.

The provisions of the new Education Ordinance for encouraging and aiding the teachers to form book clubs and mutual improvement associations, appear to be duly appreciated by those gentlemen, and I have reason to believe they will take an early opportunity of meeting together to consider in what manner the objects contemplated can be best accomplished. The District School teacher generally lives far removed from the highways of life, and from the intercourse and companionship of others of the same profession or of kindred spirit, and he is surrounded with so many secularising influences (if I may so term them) that he is in great danger of lapsing into a state of mental and intellectual torpor, and of resting contented with the knowledge he has already acquired. Now, all good teaching must flow from copious knowledge. To ensure a constant and vigorous stream, there must be a deep and well-replenished fountain. In the mother country and elsewhere, means are employed to counteract the tendency I have referred to, by the institution of Teachers’ Associations, Teachers’ Book-clubs or Libraries, and by Lectures on professional subjects. In the course of my official intercourse with the teachers of this Province it will be my duty—as it is my intention—to urge upon them the duty and advantage of continuing to add to their stock of professional and general knowledge, and thereby to maintain and increase their influence as well as usefulness in their respective spheres of labor.

School or District Libraries.

Many enquiries have already been made respecting the mode in which the Board propose to carry out the provisions of the Education Ordinance for encouraging the