Education.

The education of the people is at least of equal importance to any social question with which a government has the right to deal. In the earlier days of the Colony the provincial governments gave enthusiastic attention to the subject, and on their abolition, the general government followed in their footsteps with equal zeal and liberality. In a paper by Sir Robert Stout, recently published by the Statistical Society of Great Britain, that gentleman gave the following brief but comprehensive description of the educational system of New Zealand.

"All primary schools are free, and in them a sound English and commercial education can be obtained. Education is secular and compulsory, and the cost to the State for the year ending the 31st of March, 1892, was for public schools., £340,463; for native schools, £14,218; industrial schools, £9,856; deaf mutes, £3149; and the cost of general administration was £2,040. The number of pupils of all ages on the school rolls was, at the end of 1891, 119,523."

At the end of 1892 the number just quoted had risen to 122,620. Included in this number were 1,433 Maori (and half-caste Maori) children who attended the ordinary schools. There were besides 2,133 pupils at schools devoted to the exclusive use of native children.

Technical education is being introduced. There are also 24 secondary schools, most of them under the inspection of the State, but three or four of them are under the management of ecclesiastical bodies. The tests of the work of secondary schools are the matriculation and scholarship examinations of the University. The New Zealand University is an examining institution. Three Teaching Colleges are affiliated to it, all of which have received substantial Government aid.