E.—2

138

Arithmetic. —With the exception of Standard V, generally satisfactory results were obtained, showing careful instruction. The demands in Standard V, however, met with a somewhal uneven response, leaving considerable room for revision and attention before promotion would he justified. Mental exercises are still too frequently based upon rules which happen to offer special facilities for computation, but the occasions on which these rules can be helpful are limited, and too often prove a source of undoing. Mental arithmetic, to be of real service, should consist of varied and irregular problems in all the forms which business matters of every-day life may take. There is still a small section of teachers who divorce the application from the acquisition of a rule. They profess first to make their pupils acquainted with technical processes, and at a later period of the year to deal with problems. We would submit that such a method must have an enfeebling effect upon the pupil's judgment. If we wish to cultivate intelligence we must give the opportunity of reasoning out and arranging data. Under such a course applied questions would be given when dealing with each rule, and no new process undertaken until the pupils could grasp the meaning of a problem in various forms of language. Such a method may be considered slow, but the success in cultivating the powers of mind give sufficient apology for its adoption. We would also point out the necessity for giving some attention to shorter methods. .Judging from the results at central examinations, very little has been done in this direction ; but we hope that during the coming year teachers will make themselves conversant with the requirements of the syllabus. The adoption of shorter methods should commend itself as giving greater facility and accuracy in he manipulation of figures. Geography. The object of teaching this subject is not only to secure to pupils some knowledge of the world in which they live, of its peoples, its varying climates, its products, of the inter-relation ol nations, their growth and progress, and of the connection between their own land and other countries, but to lead them to take an intelligent interest in the realm of nature in which they live, to understand something of the natural forces at work around them in shaping the earth's surface, in bringing about seasonal changes, in modifying conditions of life, and. generally speaking, offering explanations of what are popularly known as " natural phenomena." Without some acquaintance with these matters a pupil leaves school with an imperfect knowledge equipment, and, what is more to be regretted, with but little appreciation of some of the most interesting and obvious processes of nature. A good deal of prominence is rightly given to geography in the syllabus, and in order to encourage teachers to utilize their surroundings and work along congenial lines, and so make the subject a living one, very considerable freedom of choice is allowed in plotting out courses of instruction. In taking advantage of this concession it not infrequently happens that either the connection between the work of successive years is lacking in clearness, or, where classes are grouped for instruction, there is an undue amount of repetition or overlapping. To map out a suitable course extending over several years, in the case of grouped classes, is not by any means a simple matter : for, as each year brings a fresh addition of pupils, the programme for any one session should be complete in itself— i.e., should be such that pupils who have but little knowledge of the year's work just completed are able to follow it, and at the same time it should form a link in a connected scheme of instruction. Furthermore, it must provide material sufficiently advanced to demand the serious attention of pupils forming the upper members of the group who may be as much as two years in advance of recent additions, and also supply opportunities for lessons within reach of younger pupils. In preparing any scheme of instruction these aims should be steadily kept in view. We sometimes notice that in making selections for the A course from the programme outlined in the syllabus regulations for the two upper classes, which, it is hardly necessary to emphasize, is intended to be suggestive and in no way obligatory, the close connection between certain of the sections is lost sight of. We refer more particularly to the mathematical part of the programme, where we frequently find included in one year's work such headings as " Daily Rotation," " Annual Revolution," " Latitude and Longitude," " Form of the Earth." It would seem more natural to deal with the form of the earth first, not perhaps fully, but as far as the intelligence of pupils will allow the teaching to go, then proceeding to daily rotation, to follow on with those phenomena to which this motion of the earth gives rise— e.g., " Day and Night" and " Difference in Local Time," the latter being closely connected with " Meridians and Longitude." Treated in some such way as this each phase of the subject proceeds naturally from something already dealt with, and forms in most cases a basis for further instruction. We have found some teachers deferring all consideration of course A until towards the middle of the school year, the earlier months being devoted to a treatment of course B. It is needless to say that this plan fails to meet with our approval. The matters that lie within the range of course A are, for children, both complex and difficult, and the process of endeavouring to master them should not be hurried. The subject should be begun with the school year, and should form part of the weekly instruction until its close. AH hurried treatment tends to lose in thoroughness, a platitude which is doubly true when applied to the teaching of a subject such as the one under discussion, wliich presents no inconsiderable difficulty to a large number of people of more mature experience than those found in the upper classes of a primary school. Quite a number of the reports of Inspectors from other districts deplore the meagre knowledge shown by pupils of the political and economic geography known as course B, and though there are many schools where the importance of the subject is fully recognized, and where pupils display a very real and accurate acquaintance with wisely chosen and extensive programmes, still there are too many cases where the results obtained at our visits of inspection leave much to be desired, and where there reason to believe that pupils are passing through the standards without acquiring such useful and lasting knowledge of their own and other countries as a primary-school course may reasonably be expected to provide. This is greatly to be regretted, for no training in geography can be considered as approaching elementary thoroughness which ignores this all-important phase of the subject, where so many opportunities arise of stimulating the curiosity, arousing the attention, and enlarging the