BOOK NOTICE.

Temuka Leader, Issue 2520, 24 June 1893, Page 3

BOOK NOTICE.

*• The Zealand la School Compositionhy T. Cheyne Farnie, M.A. , Head Master Geraldine Public School. Publisher — James Horshargh , Dunedin. This is a work that we can, without hesitation, commend for use in any public school, with advantage both to pupil and scholar alike. The book is decidedly original in construction and arrangement, and deserves credit for being the first of its kind in the market, for it was written, as the author says in his preface, “ to meet the requirements of the revised syllabus, as well as to afford the pupils of our public schools a systematic training in the subject during a three or four years’ course.” The book itself is a handysized one, got up in a neat blue cover, and contains 146 pages of matter, which gives full value tor the mere nominal price charged, viz., Is. But this is not all. The composition exercises are so arranged as to do service for the four standards —IV., V., VI., and Vll.—so that the real cost to the scholar per standard is 3d per copy—a price which , no parent will grumble at when the actual utility of the book is known. The book opens with a short preface by the author, briefly instructing the teacher how to proceed, and pointing out that the advantage of the composition is that “ it will save teachers some unnecessary mechanical board-work, and will enable them with little trouble to follow a regular system in teaching the subject.” Then follows a complete index of contents, and, after that, the method of teaching composition. Short stories are next introduced, with explanations, and brief outlines showing the value of punctuation, and also as exercises for the scholar in building up anecdotes on a very slender frame-work of the chief facts. Page 22 commences with short outlines of stories to be written in the form of essay or letter, and this calls for some original thought on the part of the scholar, which cannot fail to give good results. Here we might remark that it is a great pity our school children are not called upon to exercise more thought and originality in every branch of their learning, as it is now a widely-accepted fact that the power to think is of a far greater importance to a person than the power to cram the brain with all manner of facts which in the course of time dwindle from the memory as quickly as they entered it. We hear the lad who has left his school days behind him say, “ I never knew how to do a sum properly till I left school!” Why? Simply because when he left school he began to put liia learning into practical use, and this called for an originality of thought and action that at once broadened his mind and gave him a grasp of things that he never had before. If there is one principle in Mr Farnie’s book, of more importance than others dealt with, it is the one we speak of. He aims at the practical as well as the theoretical, and it would be well if all school books were written on the same good principle. The next thing dealt with is letter-writing, and how to address letters to different persons in rank, from plain Miss Bruce, Lyttelton, to distinguished personages, such as the Hon. Mr Seddon, Premier of New Zealand, and Sir Robert Stout, K.C.M.G. This part of the composition is very useful, as comparatively few lads leaving school for office-work know how to write and address a letter correctly. The scholar, as he advances, is next given a number of stories in verse as exercises in paraphrasing, a very desirable thing for teaching brevity in writing. Then there are some excellent exercises in the rearrangement of sentences, in combining sentences, and also in simplifying sentences. Several progressive lists of faulty sentences are set out for correction, and then comes that part of the composition which makes it essentially colonial and adapts it largely to colonial life. In times past scholars were somewhat pampered in learning from English books things connected with the seasons of the year, etc., which had no applicability whatever to New Zealand life. Mr Farnie in his composition has got over this difficulty, and has thus given his book a very original tone throughout. The numerous outlines for essays are distinctly original and well classified. For instance, there are essays on New Zealand flax, gold, wool, grain, buttermaking, the potato, sheep, New Zealand farm life, harvesting in New Zealand, etc. Perhaps an example of the outline of an essay on sheep will give the reader an idea of the style of the book Essay on Sheep. 1. Sheep very useful. 2. Different kinds. Merinos are hill sheep; first came from Spain, Leicesters, Lincolns, Romney Marsh, Shropshire—halfbreds, crossbreds. 3. Gaßed lanjb until qne year old; then hogget and two-tqoth till two years old ; four-tooth from two to three years old; six-tooth from tpreq tfl f°ur yeaps ojd i after foipr years old called full-mouth or eight-toothed, and afterwards broken-mouthed. 4. Uses : («) Breeding. (b) Wool-producing. (c) Dead meat. 5. Nviqffw of fjheop together palled a flock—shepherds—owners’ of sheep are farmers sheep farmers —buyers and sellers called sheep-dealers—jailers of sheep galled butchers —drjvepa of sheep called drovers. 6. Duties of shepherd. 7. Shearing, etc.

There is a splendid outline of an essay on frozen meat, and a large (manf.jty of miscellaneous qijtlinp^—all arranged to suit the town pupils as well as the country pupils. A judicious selection of outlines of essays on historical characters is given with a twofold object, by which an attempt is made as it were to “ kill two bircjs wifi} one sfonp,” vig., to teaph composition and also to familiarise the pupil with a few leading names and subjects in history. Besides all this, a list of 200 names of subjects for pgsay* writing is thrown in, which should save considerable time to the teacher in chosing essay subjects for his pupils. The book closes with advanced examples and exercises in paraphrasing. We do not make a practice of giving in our columns reviews of every new publication that corpea opt, bpt When a useful work like the one under notice emanates from anyone in our own district we feel it our duty to take notice of it. We wish Mr Farnie’s little hook every success, and feel sure thftt when its value has been attested it will command a wide sale in New Zealand. It cannot fail in this, because it is a book that is so much needed in our public schools, and will supply a long-felt want, The typographical part of the book reflects great credit on the printer, being fully equal to auy book turned out by the English press oi* aawe subjects,