Annual Report of the Balclutha Branch.

Office-Bearers, 1884-5.

President : Mr. J. G. Closs.

Secretary and Treasurer: Mr. W. Renton.

This Branch has held six meetings during the year, but on account of several changes of teachers taking place in the district, and also the fact that some of the schools have their holidays at Christmas, while others have theirs during the Harvest, the attendance has been interfered with, although on the whole it has been very fair.

The number of papers read during the year has been less than previously, there being only one, by Mr John Nicholson, on "Are the Requirements of the Syllabus Excessive, and Calculated to Overstrain the Mental Faculties of Children?" Suggestions from the General Committee of Management of the Otago Educational Institute, and various subjects of educational importance have, however, been discussed at our meetings.

Three members have left the district during the year, but as two have only recently gone, their successors have hardly had an opportunity of attending.