TOPICS OF THE DAY.

Press, Volume LVII, Issue 10777, 3 October 1900, Page 4

TOPICS OF THE DAY.

Among the men who can Yarns of an tell stories of old days in Old Sea-Dog, the South Se/is is Captain Hixson, who acted as officer commanding the New South Wales Xaval Brigade until it reached Hongkong. The voyage awoke ancient memories of the times "when sail was fcincr," and when, as R junior officer on the wooden frigate Herald, he assisted in charting the southern yeas. The old charts abounded in errors. Some reefs were shown in half a. dozen different places, many were charted that had no existence, and" others that did exist were not noted. The mission of the Herald was to weed out from the charts the fictitious reefs, put in the real ones, and to give a local habitation, if not a name, to those which appeared in a different place on each chart. It w> dangerous work, for whereas the average ship tries to avoid these reefs, the Herald had to hunt for them, and get as close to them as possible. She found them sometimes with her keel, and the chance of such an occurrence kept the man at the mast-head wide awake. The dangers of the work were, however, so frequent that the officers and crew became more accustomed to them than to the discomforts attending these surveying cruises, which kept them as a. rule eight months out of Sydney, and on which provisions always ran short, and there was generally an insufficiency of water. On some of the" islands they found whole colonies of sea b£rds, "living under a recognised form of government," as Captain Hixson said, though the only rule discernible was that of might. Right had not a chance. The man-of-war birds were the island chiefs. They

never went fishing, but hovered about the island, and robbed the smaller birds. These in turn robbed others still smaller, and so on. Sometimes the Herald's crew robbed the birds too, and added fish and eggs to their monotonous diet of salt junk and biscuit. The sight of E-ossel Island revived recollections in Captain Hixson's mind of the wreck of a French barque on a neighbouring reef. Her cargo consisted of Chinese coolies, who were being taken to Fiji, and about 150 of these were saved, together with the captain and some of the crew. The natives seized the Chinamen, put them in pens, fattened them up, nnd then killed them off as they became ready for the table. The captain and four of the men escaped a similar fate by seizing a boat and getting to Australia. Another reminiscence suggests a magnified form of spinning for trout. Sharks so swarmed in the .Southern seas at that time that it was almost impossible to heave the log, or, at least, to keep it in the water. The bright revolving metal attracted the sharks, which would snap it up as a big trout takes a phantom minnow, or a pike a spoon-bait. With a big hook and suitable gear, what splendid sport spinning of sharks should be, rivalling that enjoyed by the individual whose

. . . . "hook he baited with a dragon's tail, And sat upon a rock and bobbed for whale."

In theory, if not always Rural Training in practice, agricultural in France. and horticultural training

receives much more attention in France tiian in England. A good many points in tbe French system are worth considering in these colonies. Since 1879 Chairs of Agriculture hare been established in every department, and the professors give theoretical and practical instruction to all students at training colleges for teachers. For male students land surveydng, levelling, and; agriculture are obligatory, while females' receive instruction in domestic economy, and all alike are taught the elements of natural and physical sciences. A marked distinction is made between agriculture and horticulture. The first can be taught only as a scjenee, chiefly with the object of making teachers able to inspire their pupils with an interest in the country and in countrypursuits. As the report of the 1879 Commission has it, "the Legislature did not intend to make every student a kind of professor of agriculture, and any teacher advancing such a cktim would soon find himself the butt for tie raillery of the farmers, ■who believe witfn reason that a man becomes a master of agriculture only after liandling the hoe and guiding the plough." Horticulture, on the other hand, can be dealt with practically. Every training college is supposed to have a. nursery of fruit trees and a part reserved especially for botanical studies. At (Means first-year students assist the gardew&r in his ordinary work, second-year stuttents perform experiments •with chemical manures under the Professor of Science, are taught grafting by tlh« Professor of Agriculture, and fruit and vegetable culture by a gardener; third year students are taught the analysis of soils and manuree, grafting and .pruning ; tihey are taken visits to farms and nurseries, besides having a separate plot to cultivate under the gardener's directions. An English, traveller observes, while visiting one of the French village schools, that a neighbouring farmtr came in to consult the teacher, who was re- | g-ardfed as quite a referee on the treatment of vines and fruit trees. So that this college training has evidently practical results.

This training is a regu- | The System lar part of every In the Schools, teacher's course, and

■what he learns he has to impart to bis own pupils as soon as he ' takes up his profession. Agricultural in- ! straction is obligatory in all primary schools, | and since 1897 it lias been a compulsory subject of examination in all rural districts. : Almost every school has a good garden ■which belongs to the teacher, but is used for demonstration, and is sometimes cultivated by the children. The village school at Olivet is a good type of the methods used. Here all the children receive theoretical in- ' struction, beginning with object lessons, and the elder boys have practical teaching after school hours or on Thursday, the weekly holiday in France. Two theoretical lessons are given each week, and these are followed by vrork in the garden budding, grafting, j pruning, planting, or some such operation. | Once a month during spring, summer, and ! autumn visits are paid to nurseries and ' farms; during the -walk plante and insects are collected or lessons given in land-survey- \ ing. The teachers, we are told, do not ; grudge giving up these hours out of school, ; as they say they get to know their pupils ; better then than at any other time. An- j other means of awakening intelligent interest is the school museum, to which tire children contribute 150 varieties of insects, classified i according to their good qualities or the in- f jury they do to the vine, cereals, vegetables, ! fruit trees, forest trees, forage plants, rose trees and flowers. Each child, too, has its ; own collection of dried plants, which are I studied with especial reference to their beneficial or harmful effects. Prizes of : money, medals, and books are offered by the i Government acd by various agricultural ' societies to the teachers at whose school* ; the best agricultural instruction has been \ given. The whole programme looks most- inviting on paper, and in many instances it J seems to work excellently. Bat on the whole I it ie not neatly so well carried out as it ! might be. Too much merely theoretical i instruction is given ; the standard of know- ! ledge is so low that even a child of eleven j might easily pass and be henceforth I jeecamg/t ; then, too, the local authoriMea j

grudge the least extra expense, and often make experiments impossible by their parsimony. The "Times" correspondent who describes these rural schools, says that nothing in their actual work is superior to that of the British schools at Boscombc and at Wye. The immense advantage of the French system is that it is universal, not partial. In this matter, perhaps, we may have something to learn from France, "the nursing-mother of ideas." The principle of rural instruction for rural districts seems- as sensible as a compulsory training in Latin or English parsing and derivation; it is certainly better physically and perhaps as good mentally. A f<?\r tentative etlorts towards recognising this have been made in New Zealand where agriculture is set down as an optional subject in Teachers' Certificate examinations. One teacher in Central Otago has gone so far as lay out the school glebe on his own account, and give the children practical lessons in floriculture out of school hours.

But, in spite of our Agricultural College, v.'c want something more systematic than this if agriculture and gardening are to become school subjects with us.