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On the other hand we occasionally find much difficulty in selecting subjects on which the upper scholars can write more than a few disconnected sentences. Such a result is all the more surprising in view of the ample material at the disposal of the resouiceful teacher. We wou'd suggest, as lines for the stronger development of this subject, practice in the analysis of the subject-matter of the poetry contained in the school readers, bringing into prominence the several word-pictures in the order of their presentment, the same to be used as material for written descriptions in the children's own language. Valuable training in observation and in concentration of thought would also be supplied by the silent reading of previously unseen passages, and by their subsequent reproduction as a test of composition. Arithmetic.—A year's uninterrupted experience of the new conditions has served to demonstrate the value of recent changes in the arithmetic syllabus. The importance attached to more up-to-date and rational methods of teaching than those too commonly in vogue in past years has in most schook received sympathetic recognition. The immediate advantages are most apparent in the preparatory classes and in the two lowest standards. In Standard II in particular a new interest has been imparted to the subject by the substitution of easy calculations in money rules for long md uninteresting mechanical examples. The step to Standard 111 is thereby rendered less difficult, and, in fact, we should at this stage welcome a more stringent test, to insure the successful treatment of the Fourth Standard programme during the following year. In the higher standards we hope to find increased attention to mental arithmetic and to shorter methods of working the rules presented for the previous standards. In some schools the shortcomings in arithmetic in the upper standards are partly to be attributed to premature promotion, although a separate classification in this subject is permitted by the regulations. Geography.—The work covered in Course A geography is being carried out in realistic fashion and with reasonable success by a majority of teachers. To a few, whose equipment is less complete and whose opportunities are more limited, the assistance and guidance of various text-books will doubtless be welcome, but their adoption will have a depreciating influence on the educative value of the training imparted. In our intercourse with teachers during the year we have been working towards a common understanding with regard to acceptable schemes for Course Bin Standards 111 to VI. While we have freely made suggestions on such points, we are by no means wedded to a stereotyped uniformity, and we are prepared to welcome equivalent schemes constructed on lines that are not incompatible with mental growth and development. Drawing.—Except with regard to free-arm and blackboard drawing, for which no provision has yet been made, we find that in a growing number of schools practice in drawing from real objects is steadily making headway ; and, in a smaller number, efforts in the direction of original design deserve encouragement. Teachers who attach importance to the training in accuracy, to which the symmetrical copy so long held in favour readily lent itself, are trying to combine in their class work the exactness developed by the older treatment with the greater freedom and creative effort fostered by the new. History and Civic Instruction.—The year's experience leads us to reaffirm what was said in our last report under this head. We merely extend those remarks by drawing attention to a strangely neglected field yielding fine material to amplify the ordinary history lesson. We mean the historical poem or ballad. Few seem to notice the abundance of reference available in such a piece as the "■Armada," to use it as a searchlight revealing most vivid pictures of industrial, social, and civic life, or to show how it emphasizes the intensity of patriotic sentiment in Tudor England. It is assumed that such teaching would always be associated with the free use of a map, and thus, as a concomitant result, indelible impressions of many geographical features would also be secured. Nature-stddy.—The inclusion of this as a fairly prominent subject in the routine of elementary schools serves as a landmark showing how far, within the last few years, we have made progress towards a better conception of the aims of education. A short retrospect will perhaps best emphasize the point. In his revised code of 1861, Mr. Robert Lowe gave hard and ruthless expression to the unfortunate recommendations of the commission appointed to effect economy in the expenditure on education in Great Britain. His scheme was simple. As the result of individual examination so much per child was paid to the school managers for all who passed a fairly easy examination in reading, writing, and arithmetic. Mr. Lowe had promised the House of Commons that he would make primary education cheaper. The code insured the fulfilment of his promise. Education was made cheaper, but at what cost in educational value it is impossible to estimate. In such a code the humanising element was not conspicuous. Education was treated as something capable of being measured, weighed, and evaluated in terms of the decimal notation ; its main aim was to make the child an automaton intended only to learn, to remember, and to earn " results." We have not yet seen the last of its effects. Teachers trained under such baneful influence do not always welcome their release from its thraldom, from the vitiating tendencies of its narrow aims, and they still remain either actively hostile or passively obstructive to modern developments. The codes of later years, however, reveal a striking departure from the ideas obtaining in 1861. They freely recognise the State's responsibility for the character of its future rulers, and programmes embracing such subjects as civics, history, elementary science, geography, and nature-study provide fine material to mould and influence the youthful mind and to bring the child into that close harmony with environment which is the aim of true education. The treatment of nature-study in our schools is fairly diversified. There are a few teachers, not very eager to free themselves from the trammels of hoary tradition, who present a programme showing little beyond the old lessons under a new name ; but there are others in whose schools the developments under this head are worthy of unstinted praise. These recognise how admirably nature-study lends itself to the training of hand and eye, how it brings the child " to see the things he looks at," to acquire the habit of forming a clear mental impression which comes only as the result of close and sustained observation. But this is not all; it is only the first stage in an interesting journey. The next stage is the effort to give fitting expression to the results of observation. The modelling-board, the pencil, the brush, the pen, the free play of question and answer in the conversation lesson are each