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upper classes of the primary schools, I think that elementary agriculture or gardening along lines that will help towards agriculture should form part of the work. I should like to see it in~all schools : merely as an extension of nature-study I should like to see if in all schools. It should certainly be taken up in every rural school or in every school in a small town. Small towns are centres of country districts, and what they do the country schools are likely to do. In some districts dairy-work might be taken in an elementary manner in classes Standard V and Standard VI, particularly in the districts where dairying forms the staple industry. To that extent work in the primary schools would be vocational; but it should not be vocational in any sense that would interfere with its efficiency as an instrument for making citizens. I will now come to the next period of school life—the first part of the secondary period corresponding to the intermediate-course or junior-free-place period. There the city high schools should begin to make their science strong; it should not be too highly specialized, but tne vocational aspect should be borne in mind. The most important thing is that the scientific method should be acquired. In the country high schools I should like to see the main science always elementary agriculture. The same remark would apply to the district high schools. For those who have left school at the earliest age possible—namely, fourteen —or on passing the Sixth Standard, there should be afternoon and evening classes—continuation classes—and all those in the country should be given the opportunity of course in agriculture and dairy-work. It is quite necessary that you should add to that the further study of the mother-tongue, so I put down in this list English and I put English there for two reasons. It is found as a result of experience that in any technical work those attending the continuation classes are crippled unless they have the power of expressing themselves —describing what they see and what they do in clear language, and the practice in English need not be widely separated from the practice in agriculture, if they are constantly made to give concise accounts of their experiments and observations. But, in addition to that, I have another reason why I think English should be taught in the country continuation schools. One of the obiections to country life, which is no less strong because it is very often unperceived, is the drudgery that seems to be associated with the occupations of the farm. If you want people to go into the country you must make country life as interesting and as human as you can, and if you can give your country people some interest in their own literature, without attempting to be too pedantic or too academic in your methods, you will have helped to relieve the monotony of country life. You will help to make the country school one of the centres of social life as well as the place where instruction is given. In the last two years or more of the secondary stage the work of the first two years will be continued, the only difference being that it will become more markedly vocational or even technical. That is, in the senior course, whether taken in the day secondary school or in the continuation school. The age of the pupils would generally run from fifteen or sixteen to eighteen or # nineteen. The great majority of them would be earning their own living. So far we have failed in New Zealand to get many pupils of this age in our agriculture courses. I am bound to say that the efforts made to get them by some authorities have not been very strenuous; but other authorities have made great efforts, and have not succeeded much better. ' There are great difficulties in the way, and the greatest difficulty of all is the lethargy of the farming community itself. _ The farming community in New Zealand has not yet been converted to the necessity of training the future farmer to understand the scientific basis of agriculture. I am speaking generally. Here and there you find groups of people that have been converted to that fdea. In some of these latter cases the difficulty, I think, has been that the arrangements for the classes have not suited the work on the farms. The cows require milking, and there are many operations that can be carried on only in daylight; it is no use expecting farmers' sons and daughters to go to the classes when the work of the farm peremptorily demands their attention. We ought to arrange more for winter afternoon courses, and for courses taking up only, say, two or three afternoons a week during certain months when farm-work is slack. I would refer the Commission to what is being done, for instance, in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, and other parts of America. I referred to that in mv pamphlet: but the work has been extended still more since my visit. I'o do this work in New Zealand well, high schools and district high schools and ordinary primary schools have to work together. We cannot afford to find separate buildings and provide separate organizations for all the work of agricultural instruction that ought to be done That is an additional reason why ther.e should be a general control of all local schools by one authority. After the age of eighteen or nineteen agricultural instruction should not cease but it_ will necessarily become more diverse in form. First of all a small number will be going on with their special studies in agriculture. A small proportion of these will give up four years to studyfor the degree of Bachelor of Agriculture or Bachelor of Veterinary Science. Others who will not aim quite so high will still do a somewhat smaller and shorter course of two or three years at the agricultural college, or dairying college, or veterinary college. These people would be if they had the necessary practical experience, suitable for Inspectors in the different branches of agriculture, directors of dairy schools, Inspectors of Meat, and so on ; and there is no reason why a considerable number of them should not be managers of farms where the size of the farm requires more systematic knowledge than the average farm. We will next take the teachers and organizers of agricultural instruction who are among this smaller number They would be of two kinds. They would be the organizers and instructors of special classes not necessarily attached to any one school, but often itinerant; and I think the best course for them would be a two-years course at the agricultural college, together with a one-year course at a training college that they might be acquainted with the conditions and principles of teaching Then there would be.th e< ordinary teacher in charge, say, of the district high school or in charge of the agricultural instruction at the district high school. I think he should have two years at a training college hke all other teachers, and we should provide him also with one year at an agricultural