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No. 22. Beport on the Present State of Manual Instruction in Germany, drawn up for the Education Department of the Colony of New Zealand, by Dr. Woldemar Gotze, Master of the Bealgymnasium and Director of the Pupils' Workshop in Leipsic. Bildo das Auge, iiho die Hand, Fest wird der Wille, scharf der Vcrstand. Sir, — At the request of Mr. Guise Larnach, now residing in Leipsic, to furnish some account of German manual instruction to be of use in promoting the interests of technical education in the public schools of New Zealand, I shall endeavour in the following sketch to submit to tho appreciation of the Government such observations and experience as I have been able to make during the whole course of this educational movement, extending over a period of five years and a half, during which time I have taken an active part in its theoretical and practical development. The movement, which at present occupies in so eminent a degree the attention of educationists in Germany, Austria, France, Holland, Belgium, Switzerland, Denmark, Sweden, Norw ray, and Bnssia (particularly the Baltic provinces and Finland), is originally due to two principal causes, a pedagogical and an industrial. Attempts to reform one-sided theoretical instruction, destined to inculcate knowledge exclusively by mental processes, are by no means modern : in Germany they date from the time of the Beformation. Martin Luther, the founder of German Protestantism and of the German system of popular education, was himself busily occupied during his leisure hours with a practical trade, as, for instance, turning; and in his famous letter to the Mayor and Town Councillors of every town in the German Empire he lays particular stress on the view that schools are not to be considered from a mere theoretical standpoint, but as establishments destined to educate for practical life, and he distinctly requires that children should be taught not only the knowledge and learning of the day, but likewise such descriptions of handicraft as may be of use to them at home in the family, in the community, or in the State. But it was the realistic pedagogy of the seventeenth century that first acknowledged manual labour to be an educational element in its system. Comenius (1592-1656), especially, is known for having drawn particular attention to manual training as a potent educational factor. " Schools," he says, " are to be workshops teeming with labour." He states that on psychological grounds the occupation with things must take precedence of that with words (verbalism), and therefore recommends the substitution of demonstrative instruction for mere verbal instruction. He desires, above all, to have the faculties of sense in children duly exercised, and, remembering the adage mens sana in corpore sano, to provide recreation from study in the form of games and bodily exercise. He finally caught up the idea already broached by Luther that ordinary school instruction is to be supplemented by training in some manual department. And all this Comenius wishes to see introduced not only in elementary schools, but also in the higher schools and academies the hand, as well as the head and the heart, are to be cultivated. He expressly hopes that in time the public schools may send forth young men active and ready, clever and diligent, to whom in afterlife any business whatever may be confidently intrusted. At a later period the principle of giving the school a more practical turn was firmly represented and powerfully upheld by the English philosopher John Locke, in his work, " Thoughts on Education," published in 1693. In these essays Locke eloquently pleads for the introduction of the manual element into the educational system, as it greatly contributes to the recreation of mind and body, not to mention the salutary influence which technical occupations must exercise on the skill and natural aptitudes of the pupil. He finally refers to the circumstance that labour, while preserving us from idleness, its temptations and evil consequences, is eminently qualified to promote moral education. After Locke we find Jean-Jacques Bousseau, in his celebrated work " Emile, ou de l'Education," advocating the introduction of manual instruction into schools, and pronouncing it indispensable to all sound instruction. "Unquestionably," he says, "we form of things which we learn in this manner [i.e., practically] a more clear and vivid conception than of those which are conveyed to our minds by mere verbal communication." He compares the mind which, instead of thinking and devising for itself, is always influenced from without, with the body of a man who is always dressed from head to foot and served by others, and drawn by his horses, till he finally loses the free and easy use of his limbs. "If," says Bousseau, "instead of chaining a child to books, I employ him in a workshop, his hands are occupied for the benefit of his mind; an hour's work will teach him more useful knowledge than he can learn from books and oral explanations in a day." Skilled manual labour is, therefore, according to Bousseau, not only of importance as a practical preparation for the future career of the pupil, but also a most valuable means of developing the mental powers. Manual instruction was first systematically given in Germany by Christian Gotthelf Salzmann, in the celebrated educational establishment founded by him at Schnepfenthal, in Thuringia. "I believe," he says, " that to acquire a sound education children must be placed in a position to do real effective labour; . . . for are we not all endowed with bodily functions ? Why should we then by negligence allow them to grow rusty ? Are not the most precious implements of man his hands, and are we to suppose that the mind will be able to develop its noblest faculties if its best instruments, the hands, are allowed to grow awkward and useless? Where is the man, however* rich or noble, who may not one day be obliged to earn his bread by the work of his own hands?' In his famous "Book of Ants " he refers in the following terms to the practical manual labour of children: "The making for themselves first of all manner of playthings and toys, and afterwards of really useful tools and objects, is such a profitable and agreeable occupation that in all educational establishments where children are to be properly educated I consider it an indispensable requirement to afford them opportunities of learning how to perform manual labour. In the first place, their natural desire of activity is gratified, and all extravagant forms of youthful