INSTRUCTIOK — DEFENCE
205
Instruction.
There are 2 Government high schools, 4 Government model schools, 2 Government art schools, 14 Government primary schools, 43 Government- aided schools, 252 Government-aided farmhouse schools, and a considerable number of private schools in the colony. Four of the aided schools are secondary schools fur girls, and one is a home for deaf and dumb children. The aggregate number of pupils in regular attendance at the Government and inspected schools was 7,685 (1897) ; the average daily attendance 87 per cent, of the number on the registers. At the high schools there is an average daily attendance of 268 pupils. About 1,600 children attend private unaided schools, and it is estimated that only 200 white children are receiving no education. About 96 per cent, of the whole number of white children in the colony are being educated, the number of those receiving gratuitous edu- cation (1897) being 773, The direct Government expenditure on schools for 1896-97 is 45,4557, Fees paid by pupils in Government schools for 1896-97, 7,6531. Thirty bursaries of the annual value of 20^, each, tenable for three years, are established by the Government, and one exhibition of the annual value of 1501., tenable for 4 years, at a University of the United Kingdom.
There are 159 schools for natives, with a total attendance of 8,542, which received in 1896-97 grants in aid to the amount of 5.528Z. ; and 30 schools for the children of Indians, with a total attendance of 1,961 in 1897, and for which a grant of 1,9221. was voted.
Finance.
The general revenue and expenditure of the colony, exclusive of loan funds, in the last five years ended June 30, were as follows : —
Year
Revenue
Expenditure
£
£
1892-93
1,069,678
1,099,858
1893-94
1,011,017
1,082,373
1894-95
1,169,780
1,148,093
1895-96
1,457,338
1,282,484
1896-97
2,213,074
1,624,998
The revenue of the Province of Zululand in 1897 was 67,658/., and expenditure 68,518Z.
The following are the principal items of ordinary revenue for the year ended June 30, 1897 :— Railways, 1,285,249Z. ; customs, 413,390/.; excise, 20,216/.; land sales, 44,112/. ; mails, 56,822/. ; telegraphs, 22,924/. ; stamps and licences, 31,408/.; native hut tax, 94,038/.
The principal items of expenditure for the year ended June 30, 1897, were: Railways, 560,455/.; public works, 90,419/.; defence, 156,021/. Total loan expenditure, 649,587/.
The Public Debt on Juno 30, 1897, was 8,019,143/.
Defence.
There is a body of mounted police numbering 490 Europeans, and of volunteers 1,391, including a volunteer naval defence corps of 90 men. The cost of the mounted police force for the year ended June 30, 1896 was 57,766/., and the colony contributed 39,629/. to the expense of the volunteers during the same period.
