E.-lB

20

first forms of government that are intrusted to the direction of future citizens. In the Nineteenth Century and After, of the Ist May, Mr. Michael Conway has a very suggeative article entitled " The Individual versus the Crowd," in which he deala with the education of children in the following pregnant words : " What we call education is really much more the drilling of a child into the crowd organization than the equipment of an individual with the means of pursuing an. individual career." This is an aspect of school life, the importance of which is hardly perceived at the present time by school authorities. Much is to be said in favour of new forms of instruction in the schoolroom, but intercourse among the children in the playground in relation to games, to ground-planning, to nature study, and to behaviour and conduct generally is as important an aspect of training in a democracy where numbers predominate as any course of instruction in the schoolroom. The connecting-link between the child as an individual and the child as a part of society is formed in the playground. Pupils learn to control themselves and to consider the full rights of their fellows when at play. Tyranny hardly dares to assert itself among companions when at play. Each boy is hedged in by the opinions and actions of his fellows. Public opinion is, in fact, absolute in the place where the freest conditions of school life are formed — that is in the playground. The introduction of subjects of instruction like woodwork for boys, and cookery and dressmaking for girls, into the larger schools, whilst beneficial in many ways, has certainly tended to lessen efficiency in essential subjects like reading, writing, and arithmetic. All the subjects that have to be taught in the schools cannot receive the same amount of attention as formerly. In the case of schools where there is a limitation of the instruction in what are known as additional subjects, the results are better than in most of the larger schools. When new subjects are added to the requirements it is often found that teachers are not prepared to give the necessary instruction, and little can be done to help in such cases owing to the distance of most of the small schoola from centrea of population. A school cannot riae above the teacher in charge, and unleaa opportunities for improvement are possible in the case of teachers in the more remote places of settlement the education of the children must suffer. Educational rust soon sets in, and, instead of thoroughness, the tendency is towards mediocrity. Whether it is better to widen the school-subjects at the expense of superficiality, or limit their number in order to aim at thoroughness, is a question difficult to decide, but Arthur Shadwell, in on " Industrial Efficiency," remarks that " slovenliness may become a national habit. Slovenliness is something more than a violation of good taate, it is indifference to the best way of doing things. It ia a kind of easygoing morality in matters of method, it involves a low standard, and its influence upon children is in the last degree disastrous." The subjecta like woodwork, cookery, and dressmaking, wherever taken, are certainly appreciated, and it may be that the decline in thoroughness as pointed out is the result of the initial work in these subjects, and that when the schools are fully organized the old standard in reading, writing, and arithmetic will be maintained. The instructors in woodwork, cookery, and dressmaking—viz., Mr. Gardiner, Misses Ivey and Lousley, and Mrs. Thomas —have sent in reports on the special work done during the year, from which the following summary is made :— Mr. Gardiner says that " Classes in woodwork were held throughout the year at Napier and Hastings as centres. Two hundred and twenty pupils received instruction in nine separate classes. Two special classes were carried on, also a teach era' Saturday class. Owing to the lack of adequate accommodation and appropriate equipment the classes were conducted under extremely disadvantageoua circumstances. The attendance and progress at the special evening classea in mechanical and architectural drawing has been very encouraging, but theae classea will never fulfil their legitimate functions until the school is provided with sufficient and suitable models to enable the teaching to be from the concrete to the abstract, from things to principles. In view of the erection of a new technical school for Napier, and the extension of manual, training, and technical classes in other centres,['proposals will be submitted for realising in some measure one'a own ideals in this direction. Mrs. Thomas reports having given inatruction to 321 girls in eight schools in the southern portion of the distiict during the first six months of the year, and to 209 girls belonging to the Gisborne District High School and certain country schools in the Poverty Bay district during the second half of the school year, alternating her instruction with the instruction in cookery. She points out certain inconveniences in several schools, and considers that schools where dressmaking-classes are carried on should be provided with a separate room and such necessary materials as paper for drafting, tape-measures, tracingwheels, scissors, and sewing-machines, all of which are necessary for progress of work. It will be observed that the special instruction, important as it is, benefits but a comparatively few of the senior boys and girls in the district. _ Under present arrangements much difficulty is experienced by instructors in visiting even the larger schoola, but the difficultiea will be minimiaed when the technical-achool buildings now in course of erection are finished at Napier, Dannevirke, Waipawa, and Hastings. It is doubtful, however, whether more pupils will be instructed under the improved conditions. The smallness of the country schools presents a difficulty to the introduction into them of manual and technical training. It would be a very good thing to foster in all country schools a knowledge of elementary agriculture, including soils, rocks, native plants, and common weeds as far as each district is concerned. But specialista must do the work in the country just as they do in the towns. If education ia to have a utilitarian bias in the schools it should be in the direction of adaptation to environment and probable future needs. Itinerant teachera could do the work in the country, and by a alight modification in the preaent manual and technical regulations dealing with " school classes " it would be possible for a teacher to instruct the senior pupils belonging to twenty or more schools during the year. The large attendance of teachers at the Saturday classes in elementary agriculture, such as were held in Napier at the beginning of the year, shows that the teachers are alive to the importance of this subject as a branch of instruction in the schools. Conditions have not been favourable for the carrying-