Parish of Blissfield: Nos. 1, 1, 2, 3.

Parish of Derby: No. 2.

Parish of Glenelg: Nos. 2, 3, 5, 6, 8, 8, 9, 10.

Parish of Hardwicke: Nos. 2, 3, 5, 6.

Parish of Ludlow: Nos. 1, 11, 2. 5.

Parish of Nelson: Nos. 6, 64.

Parish of Newcastle: Nos. 2, 4.

Parish of Northesk: Nos. 1, 3, 11.

Parish of Rogersville: Nos. 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15.

Parish of Southesk: Nos. 7, 7, 8.

Parish of Brunswick: Nos. 4, 5. 6, 7.

QUEEN'S COUNTY.

Parish of Cambridge: No. 7.

Parish of Canning: Nos. 3, 4.

Parish of Chipman: Nos. 2, 3. 7, 8, 9, 10, 12. 13, 14, 15.

Parish of Gagetown: No. 1.

Parish of Hampstead: Nos. 3, 10.

Parish of Johnston: Nos. 6, 7, 8, 12, 13, 15, 17.

Parish of Petersville: Nos. 2, 13, 16, 18, 19.

Parish of Waterboro': Nos. 2, 3, 5, 8, 9.

Parish of Wickham: Nos. 8, 10, 11.

RESTIGOUCHE COUNTY.

Parish of Addington: Nos. 3, 6, 7, 8, 9.

Parish of Colborne: No. 4.

Parish of Dalhousie: Nos. 1, (and Colborne), 4, 5, 9.

Parish of Durham: Nos. 5, 9, 10.

*SAINT JOHN COUNTY.

Parish of St. John Partridge Island.

Parish of Lancaster: Nos. 4, 11, 12, 5, 17.

Parish of Musquash: Nos. 7, 8, 9, 10.

Parish of St. Martin's: Nos. 1, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 12, 13, 14, 15, 30.

Parish of Simonds: Nos. 2, 3, 6, 7, 11, 15, 17, 19, (Bdr. D.) 20, (Bdr. D.) 21, 22.

*St. John County is the same as last year, the Inspector not having reported any change.

Parish of Gordon: Nos. 3, 4, 6, 7.

Parish of Grand Falls: Nos. 2. 4, 5. 6, 8, 10, 11.

Parish of Lorne: Nos. 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 7.

Parish of Perth: Nos. 3, 4, 5, 6, 7. 8, 9, 10, 13.

WESTMORELAND COUNTY.

Parish of Botsford: Nos. 1, 4, 18, 19, 20.

Parish of Dorchester: Nos. 4, 7, 9, 19, 21, 26, 27.

Parish of Moncton: Nos. 2, 8, 17, 20 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 13.

Parish of Sackville : Nos. 1, 3, 4, 15, 17, 18.

Parish of Salisbury: Nos. 4, 5. 9, 10, 14, 15, (Border) 22.

Parish of Shediac: Nos. 1, 2, 13, 14, 15, 16, 18, 21. 22.

Parish of Westmoreland: No. 11.

Parish of Bright: Nos. 6, 7, 9.

YORK COUNTY.

Parish of Canterbury: Nos. 6, 10, 12, 13, 20, 22.
Parish of Douglas: Nos. 10, 12, 14, 16, 18, 19.

Parish of Dumfries : Nos, 6, 8, 9.

Parish of Kingsclear: Nos. 7, 8, 9, 11, 12.

Parish of Manners-Sutton: Nos. 7, 10, 11.

Parish of New Maryland: No. 3.

Parish of Northlake: Nos. 131, 17, 19.
Parish of Prince William: Nos. 6, 8, 11.

Parish of St. Mary's: Nos. 9, 10, 11, 14.

Parish of Southampton: Nos. 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18.
Parish of Stanley: Nos. 1, 2, 7, 8, 10, 13, 14, 15, 16.

The Cities and Incorporated Towns.

The Boards of School Trustees in these large Districts consist of seven members each, instead of three as in other School Districts of the Province. The Chairman and two other members are appointed by the Governor in Council; and the City or Town Council appoints four members, one of whom retires annually from office. Each Board appoints a Secretary, and two of them, Saint John and Portland, employ, in addition, each a local Superintendent.

The amount of the annual District assessment is, within the limitations of the Statute, determined by the Board of School Trustees; and notification of the aggregate is lodged with the City or Town Council. This amount is levied at the same time and in the same manner as other City or Town Rates. The Council annually appoints two Auditors to audit the accounts of the Board of Trustees.

The following are the Districts organized in accordance with the above provisions: the City of Saint John, the City of Fredericton, the City of Portland, and the Towns of Saint Stephen, Milltown, Woodstock and Moncton. Reports from each of these will be found in Appendix C.*

HALF-YEARLY PERCENTAGE of Enrolled Pupils daily present on an average in the Cities and Incorporated Towns.

Teachers' Institutes were held during the year in Albert, Carleton, Charlotte, Gloucester, Kent, Northumberland, Queen's, Restigouche, Sunbury, Westmoreland and York. There have not yet been organized permanent Institutes in Victoria and Madawaska, but some of the teachers from the former have attended the Carleton Institute. It is impracticable to undertake Institute work in Madawaska until a larger number of its teachers have enjoyed the advantages freely offered at the Normal School.

Educational Institute.

The Chief Superintendent did not convene the Educational Institute last year. In compliance with the following resolution passed by the Institute in 1883: "That in the opinion of the Institute it would be advisable so to amend the provisions of Reg. 23, as to empower the Chief Superintendent to convene the Educational Institute either annually or biennially, and at such period in the year as the Executive Committee of the Institute may determine from time to time," the Board of Education empowered the Chief Superintendent to convene the Institute annually or biennially.

By a recent amendment in the provisions of Reg. 23, the Institute will hereafter meet during the month of June. The Executive Committee shall determine the number of days the Institute shall be in session, and the programme of exercises for each meeting. The committee have determined that the next meeting of the Institute shall begin on the last Monday in June. The meetings will be held in St. John.

By the following provision Teachers and Trustees will be allowed the usual grants for the last three teaching days in June:

"The Secretary shall, as soon as practicable after the close of the session of the Educational Institute, transmit to the Chief Superintendent, in form to be supplied for that purpose, a list of the Teachers present at the same and the attendance at each session, and in the semi-annual apportionment of the County Fund and disbursement of Provincial grants the Chief Superintendent shall, in every case in which the Teacher has attended all the sessions of the Institute, allow to the Board of Trustees their proportion of the County Fund for the last three teaching days in June as if the School or department had been open, and to the Teacher the Provincial grant as if he had been engaged during these three days in teaching the School or department under his charge."

Enrolment and Average Attendance.

During the Summer Term, ended October 1883, as will be seen from Table I, there was an increase of 40 schools and of 2,125 pupils, over the corresponding term of the preceding year, giving an average enrolment of 53 pupils to each additional school, and in the following Term an increase of 36 schools with an increase of 2,847 pupils over the former corresponding Term, giving an average enrolment of 78 pupils to each of these schools. This is a very considerable increase in respect of average enrolment. During the corresponding Terms of 1882-3 the enrolment upon the increase of schools only amounted to 31 and 30 pupils respectively.

It is to be regretted that the average enrolment for the schools of the Province has, for many years, been so small. When we compare it with other Provinces the difference is decidedly against us. While we cannot show an enrolment of more than 37.84 for each School, that of Nova Scotia has for some years varied from 43 to 44, and of Prince Edward Island from 45 to 46. In Ontario, with an enrolment of 471,512 pupils, it is about 67 to each of the 6,857 Teachers. Had our schools an average enrolment equal to that of Nova Scotia, our registers would show an increase of 9,000 pupils, or equal to that of Prince Edward Island an increase of about 12,000, and if equal to that of Ontario our present enrolment would be nearly doubled, and all this without increasing the cost of the Schools, unless by an increase to the Teacher's salary, or without rendering the instruction less effective than it is in the other Provinces.

There are, no donbt, many sparsely settled districts where schools must be maintained although the enrolment is small, but, wherever practicable, efforts should be made to unite schools having small numbers. It is a mistake to suppose that the fewer the number at school the better can the pupils be taught. The force and sympathy of numbers is a powerful stimulus to school work. In cities, towns, and populous places, where teachers are not called upon to deal with more than two grades, some of the departments in which the same grades are taught, especially those in advance of the primary, might be profitably united. The averge enrolment under such favourable conditions for work as our schools in cities and towns enjoy, ought not to fall below 50 at least.

With respect to the average attendance of pupils New Brunswick is in a more satisfactory position when compared with other Provinces. During the year 1882-3 the average attendance for the Province was 55.63 per hundred enrolled; in Nova Scotia the average attendance during the same time was 56.9; in Prince Edward Island 54.71, while Ontario only made an average of 45. During the year 1883-4 the average attendance for the Province has increased

4.04.

Text-Books.

During the year the Board of Education has prescribed as Texts:-The Modern School Geography and Atlas published by the Canada Publishing Company. Archer's Short History of Canada, published by Messrs. J. & A. McMillan, St. John and Hamblin Smith's Geometry, in lieu of Calkin's Geography of the World, Archer's History of Canada, and Wormell's Modern Geogrophy. Classes beginning any of these subjects must use the newly prescribed Texts, but classes which have already made some progress in them may, with the concurrence of the Trustees, continue the use of the other Texts.

Instruction.

During the last twelve years the progress made throughout the Province in all that relates to the externals of Education far surpasses all our efforts ever put forth in the same direction. Commodious and substantial School-houses have taken the place of the small wretched buildings that so long disfigured almost every rural district. Apparatus and appliances which scarcely had a place have been provided in fair measure in a very large number of the schools, and Courses of Instruction have been prescribed. The Normal School has developed into a large and well equipped Institution, and Teachers' Institutes as well as a Provincial Institute have been organized to secure in as high a degree as possible the educational benefits contemplated by the Free School System. These are important advances and will ever form a bright epoch in the educational history of the Province, Important however as they all are, they are only means to an end-the instruction of the youth of the country. This has been the aim of all these years of activity, and if we have not made some corresponding progress in the intellectual life of the School we have not made full use of our improved facilities.

That much substantial progress has been made in the internal economy of the schools and in the extent and quality of the instruction, is attested to in the reports of the Inspectors. The work of many skilful, earnest and devoted Teachers has fully justified the people's efforts and realized their expectations. But while there is good reason for congratulation, there is at the same time good ground for the complaint, that a large part of the work done in many schools is not satisfactory. The instances are numerous of a painful lack of accuracy, of promptness, and of ability to apply knowledge. There does not seem to be much improvement in spelling, very little in writing, and while there is doubtless improvement in reading, yet pupils are seldom able to take