E.—ls

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as Denmark of the North Central States of the American Union. It is jto be hoped that those who are now receiving some preparation for such work in our elementary schools and in a few of the district high schools, may be disposed to continue their technical training afterwards on more specific trade lines. So far the adult classes in agriculture, dairying, and the likojin our country have been few, and have received but scant support, from those they are intended to benefit. The results in regard to trade classes in towns have been far more encouraging ; indeed, the figures quoted above, as far as they go, show that for a young country New Zealand is making fair progress towards the goal already reached by such countries as Switzerland and Germany. One remark in the report as to the supply of teachers of special branches of manual instruction may be noted as significant. It is to the effect that the experiment of relying upon outside institutions to provide a sufficient number of well-educated young men who are also expert workmen to serve as shopwork-teachers, has to a large extent failed. The report recommends, therefore, the establishment of a training department for shopwork-teachers. It goes without saying that boys can have little respect for a teacher of carpentry who cannot design with artistic taste and execute with deftness and accuracy. The experience of Wuerttemberg in starting its industrial improvement schools has been the same, and it has had to take special measures for securing a succession of trained instructors. It will be well for us to take warning by these examples, and provide thorough training for our own special instructors, especially in agriculture and in the mechanical and other skilled trades. Opportunity for doing this might be obtained by making suitable arrangements with such institutions as the Lincoln Agricultural College, and the Canterbury College School of Engineering, the schools of mines, the experimental stations of the Agricultural Department, and so forth. Nautical School. The City of New York maintains a training-ship for the merchant service, and is thus rendering a great national service in training young men to be skilful seamen, adepts in all manners of seamanship as far as it can be learnt on a sailing-vessel, and able to navigate with scientific accuracy. The men so trained, whenever they are given a chance, constitute a most valuable addition to the merchant marine in times of peace, and to the naval forces in times of war. But complaint is made that the training is not recognised at its full value. " The authorities who license ships' officers do not give sufficient credit for the admirable scientific training which the boys have received, while the National Government has regarded with apparent indifference the great expenditure of time, energy, and money made by this city to train a body of seamen from whom the navy may be recruited in time of war." The National Government is further blamed for its failure to provide the nautical school with an up-to-date vessel that will enable the school to train its student seamen in every branch of modern seamanship. Order and Discipline. In American schools there is none of that drill-like precision of order that is seen in many English and in most German schools. In the playgrounds, and in the passages when classes are changing, discipline is generally maintained by the pupils themselves ; the changes are made in a natural, easy, and quiet manner, all that is heard being the murmur of conversation among the pupils as they pass along the corridors. I was particularly struck by the politeness of the pupils to one another, and by the businesslike way in which the members of a large class would go on with their work if the teacher was called temporarily out of the room ; most classes have their tribunes elected by themselves, but the influence of these officers was in general so quietly exercised as to be scarcely noticed; if, as occasionally happened, a boy (it was never a girl) had to be called to attention, the public opinion of the class was evidently with the boy tribune, never with the culprit. The following extract from Dr. Maxwell's report is given, because of its interest, at full length : — " Pupil Self-government. —While the good order maintained in our schools is always a subject of admiration with our visitors from all parts of the world, there are still principals who cry out for a return to the dark and gloomy days of corporal punishment. And it must be admitted that the apparently incorrigible boy, with strongly marked mischievous or even vicious tendencies, is still a problem.[iijWe are approaching the solution a problem more nearly, however, in two different ways. InjjLthe first place, we are learning to look upon such a boy from the pathological point of view ; we