given to the teachers under the new system, as the inspectors are able to spend more time in showing better methods and giving advice. Manual training.-Needlework, which is most necessary for girls, is being taught throughout the schools, and the inspectors are taking care sufficient time is given to it. The important subjects of manual training and cookery have been developed during the year. Though the numbers passing through the Perth and gold-field centers (special classes) have been slightly less than in previous years, this is due to the fact that other centers are being prepared, and that classes of teachers have been held by Mr. Hart and Miss Devitt to enable their systems to be extended much more widely throughout the State. While they were holding classes for teachers some boys and girls had for the time to stand down. There have, however, been 473 boys instructed in the use of tools in the metropolitan district; 146 girls have been through the cookery course, while in the gold fields 270 and in Northam 46 boys have received instruction from well-qualified teachers in other parts of the State-for example, at Donnybrook, etc.-teachers have begun courses of instruction after seeing the work as carried out in Perth. In addition to a class for some months in Perth, a summer course during the Christmas holidays was attended by over 20 teachers at Bunbury. ** * The technical school has made great strides under Mr. Purdie's direction, and now can boast of being a most flourishing institution, the temporary and inadequate buildings which house it in no way damping the ardor of the teachers or students. Expenditure. The amount expended in 1902 for primary education ($426,510) was 78 per cent of the entire educational expenditure for the year, viz, $545,985. NEW ZEALAND. The following particulars with respect to the operations of the New Zealand system of education for 1902-3 have been furnished to this Office by Mr. Mark Cohen, editor of the Dunedin Evening Star, whose comments add great interest to the facts presented: Partly through the operation of the school attendance act of 1901 and partly from other causes, such as the increase in the number of schools in sparsely populated districts, attendance at public schools has improved, and there seems to be good reason to hope that it may still further improve. The standard of regularity of attendance reached in 1900 and 1901-namely, 84.1 per cent of the average weekly roll number-rose to 84.9 in 1902. This figure is a high one compared with the corresponding figures for the British Isles and for the several States of the Australian Commonwealth. According to the latest returns which are available, the average attendance in primary day schools in England was 83.6 per cent of the net enrollment, in Scotland 82.9 per cent, and in Ireland 65 per cent. For the Australian States the numbers were: New South Wales, 72.6 per cent; Victoria, 66.5; Queensland, 81.3; South Australia, 79.9; West Australia, 81.6; Tasmania, 74.4. These returns are for 1901 in the case of Scotland, Ireland, and New South Wales, and for 1902 in the others. The number of children of Maori and mixed race attending the public schools has increased during the year by 340-namely, from 2,688 to 3,028; the number of such children in the Maori village schools was greater by 444 in 1902 than it was in 1901; in the Maori boarding schools there was an increase of 7. In the aggregate there were 6,626 children of Maori and mixed race receiving instruction last year, as against 5,835 the previous year; that is, there was a total increase of 791. The proportion of boys to girls is almost the same as for 1900 and 1901–52 per cent to 48 per cent. Taking the average for the last four years, for every 100 boys on the rolls of the schools there are 92.4 girls. The ratio of the children under 10 years of age to those over that age is slightly lower than it was last year. The actual percentages are, respectively, 51.9 and 48.1 of the roll number. The following table of attendance at schools on March 31, 1901, is interesting: The number of schools open at the end of 1902, if 92 half-time schools are counted as equivalent to 46 full-time schools, was 1,708, or 31 more than were open in December, 1901. On December 31, 1902, there were employed in the State schools 3,704 teachers, of whom 2,957 were adults and 747 pupil teachers. The average number of children in attendance was 30.7 to each teacher. Out of the total number of adult teachers 1,272 were men and 1,685 women; in other words, for every 100 men engaged in teaching in the public schools of the colony there were, at the end of 1902, 132 women so employed. Comparison with the principal Australian States and with England shows that for every 100 adult male teachers the number of adult female teachers was: In New South Wales, 66; Victoria, 87; Queensland, 108; South Australia, 186; England, 293. In this colony the proportion of female to male teachers in 1892 was 94 of the former to 100 of the latter, so that the proportion of female to male teachers has increased in the interval from 94 to 132 per cent of males. On which fact the secretary of education comments thus: "It will be seen that the substitution of women for men as teachers in our primary schools is a process that has been going on for some time in various countries, although it has not yet reached in New Zealand the stage it has reached in England and America, or even in South Australia." The number of pupil teachers actually employed in New Zealand at the end of the year was 747, or about one-fifth of the total number of the staff of the schools. The effect of the public school-teachers' salaries act has been to improve the staffing of the schools by reducing the average number of children under the charge of one teacher. It is to be feared, however, that in some cases the number of children actually under the charge of a single teacher considerably exceeds the number that the act appears to indicate. It would probably tend to greater efficiency if, subject to the conditions of classification and suitability of the several teachers for the various classes of each school, the average number under the instruction of any teacher or teachers did not in general greatly exceed the number indicated by the scale of staffs in the schedule to the act, which allows not more than 60 children for each adult teacher, and not more than 30 for each pupil-teacher, or on the average not more than 45 for each member of the staff. But neither school committees nor education boards appear inclined to take advantage of this provision in the act, with the result that the lot of the second male assistant is an exceedingly unhappy one just now, seeing that the standard of living throughout the colony has been raised on the average over 20 per cent; and teachers of this class are leaving the service by the score, in order to improve their worldly position. The total of all salaries and allowances at the rates paid at the end of the year was £418,564 18s. 7d. ($2,092,824). This includes the salaries and lodging allowances of pupil teachers, as well as all salaries, house rent, and other allowances paid to adult teachers. The average salary per teacher was therefore £113 Os. 6d. ($565). The principal item showing an increase is that of teachers' salaries and allowances, £419,701 ($2,098,505) for 1902, as against £382,061 ($1,910,305) for 1901, but out of this the sum of £6,742 ($33,710) was paid as the last installment of the increases to salaries for 1901. The net increase over 1901 was therefore £24,156 ($120,780) on this head. Another item showing a considerable increase is the expenditure on manual and technical instruction, which was £11,605 ($58,025) for 1902, as against £7,611 ($38,055) for 1901. At the beginning of 1902 there were 69 Maori schools, and during the year this number has been increased by S. The total cost of educating the Maori children during the year was £26,946, or about £7 per pupil. A field in which there has been marked advance during the year has been the manual and technical department, to which much attention has been devoted. The total number of recognized classes at the end of 1902 was 911. Of the latter, 568 are classes for manual instruction in primary schools, 279 are technical classes (properly so called) for adults, while 64 are continuation classes. The total number of these classes is now 1,629. The work is being taken up in the small as well as the large centers and to an increasing extent in the country. During the past year a very important new departure has been taken-providing "free places in the technical and secondary schools. All children who succeed in passing the sixth standard grade or year at the age of 14 years are entitled to free tuition for two years at the nearest secondary school, and similarly free scholarships (tenable for two years) are granted on certain conditions in connection with the technical schools. And these boys and girls who during the currency of these scholarships make satisfactory progress with their studies are entitled to receive an additional two years' instruction at the respective schools they attend. So far 16 out of the 25 secondary schools in the colony have accepted the terms on which the Government have offered monetary assistance to the governing bodies of these institutions, and there has been a large inrush of pupils to these schools. The same end is to be attained in the country districts by the establishment of district high schools, the number of which is nearly 60, as against the 15 in existence two years ago. The process of freeing the secondary schools is, however, to go on gradually until the dream of the advanced section of our educationists-the entire freeing of the national system from the lowest rung of our educational ladder to the highest, to wit, from the kindergarten to the university-has been realized. The present minister of education (the Hon. Mr. Seddon) is evidently in sympathy with this school of educational reformers, for on a recent occasion from his place in Parliament he is reported to have said: "It is not the intention of Government to stop here, but to go on until the way is open for any boy or girl of promise in New Zealand to receive the highest education which the colony has in its power to give. With this end in view, the Government have determined to provide house allowance for one year for two pupils in the fifth standard in each educational district-26 in all-who are specially gifted and have received the highest number of marks, but who are, from outside causes, unable to continue their school course; and to establish 24 ‘national scholarships,' the object of which will be to enable holders to go from primary schools to secondary schools and thence to the university, full provision being made for the cost of tuition and for their maintenance." Sir Robert Stout (former minister of education) was recently appointed chancellor of the New Zealand University in succession to Sir James Hector. The Hon. W. C. Walker, after seven years' occupancy of the portfolio of education, in July last resigned that position and his seat in the university, in order to become speaker of the legislative council. During Mr. Walker's administration of the education department several notable reforms have been inaugurated, the principal being the extension of "freedom of classification" to all the branches of the primary school course. Education is meanwhile administered by the Right Hon. R. J. Seddon, premier of the colony. A parliamentary committee has been set up for the consideration of the entire field of education in the colony, but it is not expected that they will be able to do more than present an interim report this session. Superannuation for teachers.-Mr. Cohen furnishes also an account of the efforts made during the last twenty-five years, having for their object the establishment of a scheme for the superannuation of aged and infirm teachers. Owing [he says] to a variety of causes none of these schemes were ever brought to a successful issue. The chief causes of failure seem to have been (1) the want of a colonial scale of salary, (2) the lack of organization among teachers themselves, and (3) the impracticability and financial unsoundness of the schemes proposed. The passing of the "public school-teachers salaries' act, 1901," removed the first cause of failure, and as a result of the splendid progress made by the New Zealand Educational Institute, teachers no longer lacked organization. It now only remained for some one to formulate a practicable, financially sound, and acceptable scheme. A working basis was submitted in 1902 by a member of the New Zealand Educational Institute, and a bill embodying its proposals was introduced into Parliament toward the close of the year's session, but no further legislative action has been taken in the matter. Mr. Cohen expresses the opinion that— No teachers' superannuation bill will be brought forward during the present session, if, indeed, during the existence of the present Parliament, the feeling of the Government evidently being that it is not wise to further sectionize in the matter of retiring allowances. In all probability [he says] the teachers of the colony will be dealt with sooner or later in this regard as a branch of the civil service, which they ought to have been all along. Mr. Cohen also furnishes interesting particulars with respect to Dr. John Hislop, the first secretary of education in New Zealand, whose death occurred May 19, 1904, at the age of 83. This veteran educator was educated at Edinburgh, where he gained first prizes in all classes which he attended at the Edinburgh School of Arts, now the Watt College, and at the conclusion of the prescribed course was awarded the school's diploma. After a varied and successful career as teacher, first in Scotland and afterwards in New Zealand, to which colony he emigrated in 1856, he was appointed in 1861 secretary to the education board and inspector of schools in Otago and performed the difficult and arduous duties of the dual office for a number of years. He had a large share in the establishment of the boys' and girls' high schools, teachers' training college, school of art, and district high schools throughout Otago. On the establishment of the Otago University, in 1869, Mr. Hislop became its first secretary and registrar, from which office he retired in 1871. On the establishment of the Caversham Industrial School, in 1869, the duty of organizing and supervising was intrusted to Mr. Hislop, in conjunction with the late Mr. St. John Branigan. *** A record of the services rendered to the public by Doctor Hislop would be incomplete without reference to the education bill which was drafted by him and passed its second reading in the House of Representatives in 1871. The measure was subsequently dropped, and it was not till the session of 1877 that the education act embodying the greater proportion of the clauses drafted by Doctor Hislop came into force. He became the first secretary of the newly formed education department at Wellington, on the duties of which office he entered in January 1878. He was presented, on leaving Dunedin, with a massive silver vase and an address from 165 teachers who had served under him, as a token of their gratitude, confidence, and good will. About the same time he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. Early in 1882, when the education department had been brought into good working order, Doctor Hislop was granted a year's leave of absence to visit Great Britain. Before leaving the colony he was entertained at a public dinner in Otago, and a sum of money was placed in his hands with which to procure a life-size portrait of himself in oils. The painting, which was obtained from Horsburgh, Edinburgh, now adorns the walls of the university library. For his well-known services in the cause of education the senatus of the University of Edinburgh (his own "alma mater") conferred upon him the honorary degree of LL. D. on the occasion of his visit to the old country. Returning to New Zealand, Doctor Hislop resumed his position in the education department, from which he retired in March, 1886. From the time of his retirement to his death Mr. Hislop was actively engaged in promoting varied public interests. |