1870.

QUEENSLAND.

REPORT OF THE BOARD OF GENERAL EDUCATION, FOR THE YEAR 1869.

Presented to both Houses of Parliament by Command of His Excellency the Governor.

To His Excellency SAMUEL WENSLEY BLACKALL, Esquire, Governor and Commander-in-Chief of the Colony of Queensland and its Dependencies, &c., &c., &c.

MAY IT PLEASE YOUR EXCELLENCY,

We, the Board of Education, beg to submit this our tenth Annual Report on the condition of the Schools under our supervision, together with a Statement of Accounts for the year 1869.

NEW SCHOOLS.

The number of new schools opened, or taken under the Board's supervision, during the year, was seventeen, of which nine were held in vested buildings, five received assistance under the regulations for non-vested schools, and three were provisional schools to which aid, in the shape of a small salary to the teacher and a free stock of books, was granted, on the understanding that it should be withdrawn if, within a reasonable time, the communities locally interested failed in contributing their respective shares of the cost of providing permanent vested schools. One school (Warwick, non-vested) was closed throughout the year, in consequence of a falling off in the attendance of children. The following is a Return of the Schools opened since the date of our last Report:

The

The total number of schools, or more strictly of school departments, in operation during the year, was eighty-nine, and the total number of scholars whose names were inserted on the admission register was eleven thousand and eighty-seven (11,087).

Estimating the whole population of the colony at 110,000, about one-tenth part thereof spent some portion of the year in the primary schools. This is not so high a proportion as is recorded in the reports of some of the southern colonies; but there are obvious reasons why it should not be expected to rate so high in a territory so vast, with a population so small, so scattered, and so migratory as

ours.

We can point, however, with some gratification to the fact that the relative annual increase in the number of schools and of pupils in Queensland will bear favorable comparison with that of any of the older colonies.

RETURN shewing the NUMBER of SCHOOLS in operation since 1860, and the ANNUAL AGGREGATE and Average ATTENDANCE of SCHOLARS.

The average daily attendance was 5,736, being an increase from the previous year of 917, or nearly twenty per cent. This is not a high per-centage relatively to the aggregate above given, but it is an improvement on previous years. Indeed, the irregular and intermittent attendance of a large number of the children, especially in our country schools, is a matter deserving of grave consideration. In this connection it may be appropriate to refer more particularly to the schools in the agricultural districts of East and West Moreton, where cotton-growing forms a staple industry, in which, during three or four months of the year, even children of tender age are employed, almost, it would seem, as a matter of necessity. It follows, therefore, that from the very commencement of the ripening season, the schools in cotton-growing districts are partially thinned; but by the time the crop reaches maturity, they are absolutely deserted, and they are closed at least for an indeterminate period of from two to four months, during which the teachers are reduced to a state of enforced idleness. This is undoubtedly a great evil, and one for which the Board have as yet been unsuccessful in finding or devising an adequate remedy.

As was stated in our last Report, the experiment of early morning classes, and in some instances of night schools, was tried as a substitute for the regular day school, but, except in two cases, viz., at the Pine Mountain and Warrill Creek, the trial has not been successful. Moreover, even in these exceptional cases, the success, though praiseworthy, was only partial, as, for manifest reasons, the night school was attended by boys and adult males only.

From what has been already stated, it will be seen that this question, in its different aspects, as regards both pupils and teachers, is one, the solution of which may be found, at last, in some system of compulsory education.

For the present, the Board endeavor to mitigate the evil by allowing no mid-winter holidays, and limiting the Christmas vacation to one week, in the cotton-growing districts.

The following table shews the aggregate and the average daily attendance of pupils in all the Primary Schools under the Board's supervision during the year. It also sets forth the incomes of the teachers, and the number and value of the school buildings.

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