85

'65. Table D shows a total average attendance of pupils of
4997, which is 792 in excess of that of the previous year:
while the total attendance of different pupils is 8630, or 658
in excess of the attendance of '65. The surplus of averager
scholars over the total number of different pupils when com-
pared with the report of '65 indicates a commendable thougk
very moderate improvement in the continuance of children
at school during several terms.

By a comparison of the total attendance during the year
with the census of children between the ages of six and nine-
teen, about five-sevenths of the number authorized by law to
attend school were present, or about one-eighth more than
attended any previous year from the first establishment of
the Public School system in the county. This favorabk
change may have been effected by the wise provision in the
law which furnishes an assistant teacher to every school
numbering sixty pupils. It has increased the teaching corps
in the county twenty per cent, and thereby afforded additional
facilities for improvement to the scholars.

During the year more than three thousand miles were
travelled in making three hundred and twenty-seven regular
school visits. With few exceptions each subsequent visit
found the schools in much better condition materially, men-
tally and morally than when first visited. The teachers al-
most universally appreciate the present school system, anl
by a commendable zeal in their arduous labors have been
generally successful in winning for it a favorable reception
at the hands of the public.

It has been found that wherever the school visitor hat
actively co-operated with the teacher and Commissioner, the
scholars have made a progress far in advance of that madr
by others where this united co-operation is wanting. It is
to be regretted that there are yet school districts in the coun-
ty where it has been impossible to induce gentlemen to act
as visitors,

Without discussing the comparative merits of ladies and
gentlemen as teachers, I have found the schools taught by
ladies as efficiently managed and governed as those taught
by gentlemen. The prejudice existing against the employ-
ment of the former in rapidly disappearing, and the assertion
may be ventured that they will in a few years be sought for
in preference to gentlemen.

There are two prominent evils in connection with the
practical operations Of the school, which urgently call for
remedial measures, viz., irregular attendance and tardiness.
It is true, the by-laws impose checks to prevent their occur-
rence, but A glance atany school register will show that these
checks fail to .accomplish the desired result. It is generally
the case that the most numerous complaints against teachers
and schools proceed from parents whose children attend only