TO-DAY'S PROCEEDINGS

Evening Post, Volume CVIII, Issue 81, 2 October 1929, Page 13

TO-DAY'S PROCEEDINGS

LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL

The Legislative Council met at 5.30 j.m,. to-day.

. The, Education Amendment Bill of the Hon. G. M. Thomson was repotted from the Education Committee with amendments.

■' Seven days' leave of absence was granted the Hon. Sir Thomas Mackenzie on account, of illness.

... The Council concurred with the technical amendments made by the House in the Wellington Bishopric Endowment Trust (Church of England) Bill. ■. ; Discussing the annual report of the !■ Minister of Education, the Hon. G. M.--. Thomson strewed the importance : of.'"the subject, and asked if there was anybody more competent to deal with • education than the present Council, which had amongst its members genWenxen who had not only held the education portfolio, but who had all their 3i;ves devoted their time and energies t"o,£ the.- study of . educational matters. Mr. Thomson referred to that section of : . the new syllabus which deals with nature study and said that, while it .was very, admirable, it seemed to him it lather overshot the mark. The majority of the students were not sufflten.tly trained to be able to carry out the subject as it should be taught. He : thought the system under which the teachers were trained could be amendj cd. Too much biological study was ' carried out in. the laboratory and too little in the field. He stressed'the importance of developing thY natural faculty of observation in the child, and said many pupils' under the present system, would sooner trust to the occeptanee of -a printed statement than ,to: their-own observation. Nature study should be, one of the chief subjects in the schools and in the examination sys- .- <tern. ... '.-.-■. ■ •