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consecutive reading hitherto in vogue in this district is to be condemned. A child should never know when he or she is to be called upon to read. There should always be the feeling that any one is liable to be called upon at any moment. Unless this is so, the lesson will be more fruitful of inattention than instruction. Arithmetic —In this subject there is very little class-teaching. Pupils generally work from books, little care being taken that the principles underlying the sums are understood. In fact, the subject is treated as a mechanical, and not as an intellectual, one. Rules are taught, and not principles. Pupils are told what to do, instead of being led to infer what to do. Hence they are generally groping iv the dark: they seldom know why this is done, or why that. AVhere a subject appeals so much to tho reasoning faculties as arithmetic, it is surely amazing that it should be taught without reasoning at all —that it should be reduced to a system of rote and rule, and not made an instrument of mental training. In this, as in other subjects, the principles should be taught through the medium of easy examples well within the pupils' grasp. The known should be made the medium to the unknown, the concrete to the abstract. AVhen the principles underlying a rule are known, the pupils can themselves evolve the rule. But in this case they are not tho passive instruments of dogmatic teaching, but active workers in a campaign of conquest. Treated thus, the subject is one of interest and pleasure, and not one of disgust and aversion. My advice to the teacher is, Use the black-board and chalk very liberally in teaching arithmetic. These are better instruments, if skilfully used, than all the books ever printed. Still, do not discard books, but use them judiciously. They are valuable as affording abundant examples for practice. Besides a knowledge of the how aud tho why, pupils should acquire facility and accuracy in the working of examples; and these are best acquired by plenty of practical work. In the junior classes of most of our small schools, even the mechanical portion of the subject is much neglected. Here the addition, subtraction, and multiplication tables ought to be thoroughly mastered —so thoroughly, indeed, that the answer should be forthcoming immediately upon the statement of the question. Unless this facility is acquired here, it will be vain to expect it in the higher classes. To quote Mr. Sheridan, "The seeds of expertness in calculation must be sown in the junior classes. If proper culture be there neglected, no matter how plentifully the seeds may be scattered afterwards, the crop will be poor." This is no theory, and every educationist of experience will indorse the statement. Mr. Robinson's method of teaching these tables is so good that I cannot do better than refer teachers to his excellent manual. They will also find Gladman of good service in the intelligent teaching of the principles of arithmetic. His suggestions and methods are generally excellent. I have not found mental arithmetic systematically taught in any of our schools. Geography.—This is an ill-taught and much-neglected subject. Seldom does it happen that geography is taken up by tbe same class more than two, or at most three, times a week, and then not in a manner to make a very lasting impression on the children's minds. To teach it effectively, the teacher himself must know the subject well, and not be reduced to the humiliating position of having to look every moment or two at his book for information, and to grope over the map iv search of this place or of that. To the extent of the lesson al least, both book and map must be known for the teaching to be effective. Unless this is so, there can be nothing done worth the name of teaching. To those teachers who are the slaves of books and maps—and there are too many by far —I would recommend a perusal of Horace Mann's description of a geography lesson given in a German school.* The constructive method so graphically described by Mr. Mann should be the prevailing method in our highest classes. But, whether the teacher draws his own maps on the black-board, and fills in what information he wishes to teach and no other, or uses the ordinary wall maps, there must be much more thoroughness in the style of teaching, as well as much more time devoted to the subject, if even fair results are to be got. To overtake the work of the Syllabus, about half an hour a day should, I think, be given to all classes above tho third. I have not seen any attempts made to familiarize } roung children with maps by drawing on the black-board a plan of the school, or of the street or road, or a map of the locality in which they live. Grammar. —From the lowest class learning the subject to tho highest, grammar is almost invariably taught from text-books. The order of the text-books is strictly adhered to, and altogether the subject is made one of the most uninteresting of the whole school course. Grammar is no doubt abstruse enough ; nevertheless it is capable of beiug made simple. But to treat it as a system of definitions and rules is not the way to make it simple. This is teaching a subject of a highly abstract nature through the medium of the abstract —a violation of the fundamental principle, from the concrete to the abstract. In dealing with the noun, for instance, treat first of the thing and thereafter of its name. Traiu the pupils by copious easy examples to see the distinction between the two —> between the reality and its symbol. Having clearly apprehended this distinction, they should be told that iv grammar those names are called nouns. Get them to educe their own definition. Continue the exercise until the children have acquired the habit of mentally distinguishing between things and their names. But the names of parts should bo dealt with as well as the names of wholes. Suppose, for example, a pin to be under review. Hold it before the class. There is the wdiole—pin ; aud there are the parts— point, head, shank, middle, top, bottom, &c. Place these words on the black-board. The pupils know that these are names, and they also know that names are nouns ; therefore they say these names are nouns, and so on with scores of other objects. The verb should next be attacked, and not the adjective, as children cannot in their grammar course begin too soon, after mastering the noun, to construct sentences. A list of nouns should be written on the black-board, and the pupils be required to complete the sentence by stating after each noun what the thing does, or what is done to it. (Teacher shows how to do this by a few easy examples on the black-board.) The idea to be developed is that certain words are used to tell what things do, or what is done to them. Continue the exercise with easy examples until the idea is well grasped, and then tell the pupils that these words are iv grammar called verbs. Get them to educe their own definition. Even at this stage children can be trained to see tbat every sentence consists essentially of two parts, the thing spoken of and what is said of it; *See Cuvrie's Common School Education, page 445.