Report of Examiner in Recitation and Reading.

At the request of the Lady Principal of the Wellington Girls' High School, I have awarded Mr. FitzGerald's prizes for Recitation and Reading. In the highest Class I had some difficulty in awarding the prize. The pupil to whom I awarded it recited with less force and expression than the two to whom I accorded honourable mention. One of these two adopted a tone somewhat too grave for the subject ("The Skylark "—Shelley) and the other was not quite perfect as to memory. All three deserve much credit for purity of intonation, and for manifest appreciation of the spirit of the poetry.

The best recitation in each of the other classes was very good indeed. Below the best there was too much exaggerated emphasis, and too little of sustained expression; too much stress put upon a word here and a word there, instead of an even tone adapted to the sentiment of a sentence or phrase. But all the competitors showed a good comprehension of the theme, which in each Class was an extract from "childe Harold."

W. Jas. Habens.

At the public distribution of prizes, the Venerable Archdeacon Stock, who had examined in Scripture, expressed himself greatly pleased with the accuracy and aptness oi the quotations written in answer to questions set by the Lady Principal.