E.—lb.

sister's name ivas Mary. They went early in the morning. The station was a mile from the village. They lived in the village." The teacher may write the sentences on the board and lead the pupils to construct the following sentence : "Early in the morning John and his sister Mary walked to the railway station, a mile from the village in which they lived." This is very good so far, but if the lesson ends here it has been of little aid in teaching composition. To render the lesson educative, generalisations such as the following should have been educed, written on the board, discussed, exemplified, and recapitulated: (1) Unnecessary repetition should be avoided; (2) words, phrases, and clauses of time often open the sentence; or, the emphatic part of the sentence is the beginning ; (3) adjuncts should be placed as near as possible to the words they qualify (rule of proximity); (4) terseness increases the force of the sentence ; (5) the periodic sentence is better than the loose sentence (principle of suspense). These principles can now be applied to any other exercises brought under the notice of the pupils, who have thus made a distinct advance in the study of sentence-building. The point indicated applies to all lessons, and by its educative value a teacher should gauge the success of his instruction. Organization, especially in the smaller schools, is still very defective, and this arises chiefly from neglect to arrange a plan for the day's work, an essential to success where a teacher has to control and instruct several classes. At the time for, say, arithmetic, the teacher has to ask the pupils where they left off at the previous lesson, has to start some classes at work in the books, and for other classes has to write questions on the blackboard. Meanwhile the class awaiting classinstruction is wasting its time. At the end of the time-table period for arithmetic the lessons are not finished or the work is not corrected, and the subsequent lessons, not being commenced at the proper time, have to be curtailed. Similar conditions obtain during the other periods shown in the time-table, with the result that much time is lost, pupils are not kept profitably employed, the work of one day has little bearing on the work of another, and the instruction, instead of being progressive and connected, is disjointed, inconsequent, and confusing to the pupils. In this connection I may quote my report for the year ending the 31st December, 1897 : " Carrying out the time-table gives ample scope for ingenuity and skill, and I shall here give a few hints which may be of some assistance. Take, for instance, reading. On the time-table two classes—say, Standards IV. and V. —may be shown as taking reading during the same half-hour. The time devoted by the teacher to each class will depend upon the size and proficiency of the class, but some such plan as the following should be adopted. While Standard IV. is being instructed, Standard V. may read silently, using a dictionary for difficult words, may write out the meanings of phrases set upon the blackboard or marked in the books, may write a test in spelling or dictation (see below), and so on. During the lesson to Standard IV. the difficult words and phrases are set upon the blackboard, and, while Standard V. is being taught, Standard IV. may write out these, or do work similar to that assigned to Standard V. Such work as I have referred to admits of easy correction, and keeps the pupils profitably employed. In spelling and dictation a teacher might save much time. If a class of four pupils has to be tested, the teacher should divide the passage to be dictated into phrases, and one of the four pupils may dictate it and at the same time transcribe it, so that he also benefits by the lesson. Without direction frcm the master the books should be collected and placed upon the table. As a rule, however, teachers dictate to three or more classes at once, a procedure confusing to the pupils, and occupying time that might be devoted to instruction. Arithmetic is taken generally at 10 o'clock, and before school commences the teacher should write on the blackboard such notes as, ' Standard V., Ex. 5' ; 'Standard IV., Ex. 6'; 'Standard 111., Ex. 2,' to show the desk-work of the various classes. At the time appointed one class will be brought up for blackboard instruction, and the others, without direction, will know what to do. When the class at the blackboard has been instructed and sent to the desks they also know what to do, and without any loss of time another class can be brought out. The work in Standards IV. to VI. should be done in rough exercise-books (such as were referred to in my last report), and could be corrected at a convenient time." Indeed, in all schools there should be an "organization board," on which the organization, as above described, should be shown. The scheme of work for the year that the teacher is required to draw, and more particularly the instruction-book, which has been in use in the district for some years, have tended to prevent overpressure at the end of the year. In most cases, lam pleased to say, there is no great fault to find in this respect, for the work proceeds steadily throughout the year. In a few cases, however, I have no hesitation in saying that the first part of the year is spent in perfunctory performance of duty, and a brief period before the examination is a rush of cram, punishment, detention, and trouble for the unfortunate pupils, and any slight sickness, irregularity of attendance, or overcrowding is exaggerated and made an excuse for the resulting unsatisfactory work. The oral answering continues to be very satisfactory, and has a marked beneficial effect on the general intelligence of the pupils, increasing vocabulary, aiding correct expression, and leading the instruction to partake more of the character of a natural conversation between the pupils and the teacher. In some cases I still notice that "Yes" and "No" answers, or their equivalents, are accepted as satisfactory. Gladman and other authorities state that " Yes " and "No " questions, as they are called, should not be asked; but not infrequently the most natural question, and sometimes the best in the sequence of questions, is one involving " Yes " or " No" as an answer, for it leads up to some point that is in the mind of the teacher. In such cases the fault lies not in putting such a question, but in accepting an unexplained "Yes" or "No" as an answer. I find that some of the teachers we get from other districts do not attach the same importance to the oral answering as do our own, and in some schools there has in consequence been a distinct falling-off in the general intelligence of the oral work and in the spirit and alacrity with which the pupils answer. Other Inspectors report on the great benefits to be derived from giving strict attention to the fullness of the oral answers, but nearly all report that the teachers do not give their recommenda-

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