8.—5.

industrial education, and that their membership includes manufacturers and leaders of labourunions, educators and publicists, men of all conditions, who are interested in education and in industry. It is such co-operation that offers most hope for a satisfactory solution of the question as to what is the best form of industrial school, as to the means by which it may be articulated with the public-school system, and as to the way to secure for the boys trained therein the opportunity to acquire in the industries the practical skill which alone can make them finished journeymen." With the sentiments expressed in the above I entirely agree, and it behoves those who are responsible for education in this country to .keep constantly in mind the object of education. "To prepare us for complete living is the function which education has to discharge," said Herbert Spencer, and this interpreted in its broadest sense surely means that education should train the individual to be a good citizen, to take his correct position in the community, to render to the State the very best service in his power, and to feel his personal responsibility. It should develop skill in effort, love of labour, keenness of intellect, and joy of appreciation. Here in New Zealand, I am afraid we often lose sight of the fact that the towns are supported by the country. We are not a manufacturing country, nor are we likely to be for very many years to come, even if ever w r e are. Our climate is such as renders many agricultural pursuits highly successful, and these are undoubtedly the backbone of the country. That being recognised, it is necessary that we should by every legitimate means encourage our people to live in the country. The tendency in most countries to-day appears to be for the people to migrate to the towns, and for our well-being this must be prevented in New Zealand at all costs. We must give our children in the country some of the advantages enjoyed by the children in the towns, and our country education must be such as will train our children for " complete living " in the country, and make them feel the attractiveness of country life hj bringing them into the very closest touch with nature —making known to them the message of star, rock, flower, and bird. Our one-room school must become the four-roomed consolidated school, so that a woman trained to teach domestic science and home economics, and a man trained to teach agriculture, may find here a fair salary, which will warrant them in thoroughly preparing for their important task. With the arrival of the Board's expert in nature-study and agriculture, Mr. V. W. Jackson, 8.A., of the Ontario Agricultural College, Guelph, in May, 1906, steps were taken to give teachers of the primary schools a preliminary training in nature-study and elementary agriculture on two days per week for a period of three months, or for a total period of twenty-six whole days. This procedure, which was found to work very satisfactorily, was continued during last year. During the summer vacation, in January and February, a summer school in agriculture was held at Onehunga for a period of twenty-four days for teachers who lived in the backblocks, and who could not convenient!}' attend any centre except in the holidays. Twenty-four teachers attended, and these were granted an extra fortnight's holiday by the Board. Forty-three teachers attended the classes at Papakura and Pukekohe during the months of March, April, and May, and forty-four at the Paeroa and Te Aroha classes in September, October, and November. A special short course was given to twenty-eight teachers attending the Auckland Training College in August. All these classes made considerable use of the Government experimental farms at Ruakura and Waerenga, which were visited, and where lectures on viticulture, fruit-growing, grafting, and budding, &c, were given by the various experts of the Agricultural Department, and I wish to express my appreciation to the Director of the Experimental Farms and to his colleagues for their courtesy and valuable assistance. During the past two years 239 teachers have attended courses of instruction in agriculture, and of these 168 gained the Board's certificates of competency. One of the results of this has been that the number of schools in which elementary agriculture is taught has largely increased. During the year 2,061 pupils, at 90 schools, received instruction, as against 1,032 pupils, at 60 schools, during 1906. In order to assist the teachers in carrying out this important teaching in their schools, a pamphlet, entitled " Some Experiments in Elementary Agriculture for the Auckland Public Schools," was issued in May last. This pamphlet gave a suggestive course spread over a period of two years, working on the basis of one hour per week, and dealt with (a) Indoor Experiments with Plants, (6) Outdoor Experiments with Plants, (c) Experiments with Soils, (d) Experiments with Milk. Bulletins and leaflets were issued from time to time during the year, and these, I believe, were found most helpful, and were much appreciated by the teachers. The following is a list of the leaflets, &c, issued : Circular A : The School Garden for March; hints on apparatus supplied to the schools; how to make a mercurial barometer. Circular B : The School Garden for April: movements of sun and stars; altometer; Southern Cross clock. Circular C : The School Grounds for May; suggestions for improvement; winter cover-crops, and study of fruits ; lesson on the magnetic compass —deviation and variation. Circular D: The care of fruit-trees during winter; June pruning Lesson, material and notes on " Fruits and Seeds." Card D : Classification of New Zealand fruits. Circular E: Top-dressing experiment (July); lesson on Solar and Civil Times. Card E : Time Chart for correcting Noon-posts, <v,c. (illustrated). Circular F : The School Garden for Spring—suggestions ; an Illustrated Sheet of useful Garden Helps and Tool House. Card F : Plan of School Garden (illustrated). Card G : The Natural Orders of Garden Plants. Leaflet H: Treatment of Insect Pests and Plant-diseases: School Mixtures. Card I: Classification of Insects, Injurious and Beneficial. Card J: How to make a Sun-dial (illustrated). Score Cards for Dairy Cattle, Beef Cattle, Bacon Swine, and Mutton Sheep. Wall Pictures (14 in. by 20 in.) for Schoolroom : (1) Good Types of Dairy and Beef Cattle; (2) Various Breeds of Colonial Sheep; (3) Best Breeds of Swine; (4) Weed-seeds, with descriptive text. Reviews of Nature-study Examinations for Teachers. In order to encourage both teachers and pupils to beautify the school grounds, and also to stimulate the teaching of nature-study and elementary agriculture in the public schools, the Board

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