149

E.—2

Reading.—The loud, nasal, unnatural tone of former years lias almost entirely disappeared. Indeed, quiet subdued tone has, in some instances, been cultivated to an undue extent, with the result that the strain of following intelligently reader after reader in some classes is positively painful. The style of reading to be aimed for, so far as tone is concerned, is one which will not only benefit the reader himself, but be easily intelligible to his auditors. As regards fluency and intelligence, there is considerable improvement, due very largely to the increase in the amount of matter now road during the year. The substance of passages read, too, is more readily grasped than before ; while in some of our better schools the reading-lesson is so treated as to increase materially the force and grace of expression, both oral and written. In connection with this subject, our experience of candidates at the teachers' examinations in January leads us to believe that in too many cases teachers themselves read with liiuHled and weak tone, and with faulty articulation. It is useless to expect good reading from the pupils of such teachers till the latter apply themselves with vigour to the eradication of their own defects. Writing.—Unless in exceptional cases, the writing of the pupils in our schools is reasonably legible and uniform ;in strenuous times like ours perhaps little more should be expected. Some of the added charm of beauty could, we think, be attained were teachers to pay more attention to detail during the course, and to discourage the angular scratchy style of writing which results from incorrect posture of the fingers, wrist, and arm. This is, of course, equivalent to saying that writing should be taught. We notice with some misgiving the difference of quality that prevails in some schools between the writing in copies and that in exercise-books, and the danger that exists in allowing scribbling in naturestudy and other note-books. The opinion expressed by some teachers that bad writing is a natural gift cannot be very well denied ; it is quite true, however, that in well-managed schools of all grades such dubious natural gifts are very uncommon. Spelling.—As a rule this subject is well taught in our schools. Considering the comparative ease with which good spelling maybe acquired (unless in exceptional cases), there is room for the belief that too much time is devoted to its teaching, particularly in the upper standards. One point we should like to emphasize —the presence of errors in common words like " too," " there," in compositions of the upper standards is quite inexcusable. These errors should have drastic treatment at an early stage of school life. The dictation tests for Standard VI this year were not drawn, as hitherto, from the reading-books in use, but consisted of prose passages from reputable literary sources. To these passages were added spelling-lists, each consisting of common scientific or technical terms. The weakness dkclosed by this change of method shows that the change was made none too soon. Composition.—Many of the compositions were of fairly high quality, while few were really hopeless. Increased attention had evidently been paid during the year to the structure of the sentence, to analysis and synthesis, and generally to the formal work in connection with composition. Both in this subject, however, and in dictation punctuation was of a fair quality only —the dash, hyphen, and semicolon not having been sufficiently studied. In the essays written for Standard VI candidates we noted the following defects : Excessive use of the simple and of the compound sentence to the exclusion of the complex ; studious avoidance of all adverbial clauses, save those of time, place, and manner ; nauseating repetition of "so," "then," and "like" as conjunctions (surely quite inexcusable); and hopeless confusion in the use of demonstrative pronouns. The composition of the written work in other subjects —geography, and even formal grammar —was often extremely weak. Such compositions must, of course, be taken into account in examinations for proficiency certificates. In spite of the numerous defects mentioned, there is a fairly creditable advance in the subject, the candidates generally expressing themselves with fair originality, satisfactory freedom, and creditable style, ft should be added bhal the practice of " getting up " essays for the occasion of the annual examinations, of trusting to luck to " spot " some of the subjects set, is far from commendable. Recitation. —In addition to the fault of indistinctness which this subject shareo wnti reading, there appears to be a growing inclination to rest satisfied with mere verbal accuracy of reproduction. Not unfrequently the modulations of the first line or two are reproduced with onpleasing monotony in the succeeding lines, the result being flat and unimpressive in the extreme. The disastrous effects of simultaneous work in this subject have been pointed out before. Arithmetic. —Regarding this subject, we have to protest most emphatically against the practice of postponing all problem-work to the last term of the year, or, in the case of junior classes, of even omitting it altogether. The arithmetic of common life consists essentially of problems, to be solved, for the most part, mentally. No class of sums should, therefore, be habitually presented to pupils as involving merely mechanical processes ; the connection of arithmetic with the ordinary affairs of human life should be frequently apparent. At the same time, mechanical accuracy and reasonable speed in working are quite indispensable, and are only to be obtained by abundant practice. If a further simplification of the syllabus would accomplish the diverse ends we have indicated, it should have our hearty support. Drawing.—ln this subject drawing from actual objects is on the increase, though not sufficiently so to satisfy modern requirements. To be successful, object-drawing should be carried on throughout the school on a definite, well-considered plan, and co-ordinated with memory drawing. As regards geometrical drawing, there is much room for improvement in many of our schools. In sonic cases the pupils are not in possession of the instruments required ; in other cases they have not been taught the correct use of the instruments they possess. Consequently, the results of the exceedingly modest though useful course laid down are too frequently of but moderate value. We may remark that this branch of the subject is taught with conspicuous success in the woodwork classes conducted by Mr. Brownlie. Music. —The work done in this subject is mostly confined to teaching a few songs to be rendered to the Inspector on his annual visit to the school. The results are occasionally pleasing, general! v tolerable, and sometimes execrable. Teaching songs is not, however, teaching singing. The exerciser