from the point of view from which the instruction is being given. It is also of great importance that the learners should become acquainted with the characteristic instrument of physical science, viz., measurement, and therefore quantitative processes should be largely made use of.

"They do not desire to bring forward physical science as a substitute for any of the subjects of study, but they ask that like these subjects it should be looked upon everywhere as a necessary part of education, and that it should receive a due share of the time devoted to school work.”

So much for the report. Here then is a very definite answer to the question, an answer given by a very distinguished committee of scientific men and experts in educational matters. The ruling spirit on this committee was Professor Armstrong, who since the issue of the report has left no stone unturned to get the kind of teaching it recommended introduced into teaching institutions. It is very largely due to his untiring advocacy that public opinion regards it at the present day with so much favour.

As an answer to the other side of the question, it may be said that, in an enquiry instituted by the Technical Education Board of the London County Council in reference to the teaching of chemistry, the evidence of chemical manufacturers, chemists at chemical works, and others was strongly in favour of chemistry being used as an instrument of education in schools rather than for the purpose of information. The opinions expressed were to the effect that the information so imparted in schools was of little value, even when the boys were afterwards to be employed in chemical works.

The recommendation of this committee with regard to the teaching of chemistry in secondary and continuation schools was as follows:

We are of the opinion that the teaching of chemistry in schools should be solely of an educational nature, and should have no reference to practical applications.

1. That chemistry is a valuable subject for school teaching, but that it should not exclude training in mathematics and languages, but should with these form part of a general education.

That it should be preceded by an elementary course of physics, to be treated as much as possible as exercises in measurements and practical arithmetic.

3.

4.

That the work should be always largely practical.

That attention should be paid to the style of the daily record of work, so that it may serve as an education in handwriting, grammar and English composition.

5. That no attempt should be made to impart in schools any knowledge of the application of chemistry for commercial purposes, except in so far as the products of such operations concern the common phenomena of every-day life.

Although, the Report of the British Association was issued in 1889, and the conclusions were not combatted but highly approved by educational authorities, for a long time it made practically no headway in schools. Public examinations on which grants were obtainable, favoured the old style of teaching, and it was quite impossible to carry on the science departments of poor schools without these grants.

Here again we meet with the difficulty of having no organisation for bringing the influence of teachers' opinions to bear upon the proper authorities. If such a report had been published in New Zealand, the kind of teaching recommended would probably have been introduced into schools in the following session, or the Educational Institute would have known the reason why.

In some discussions which have taken place in reference to the tardy introduction of reforms in science teaching, blame has been cast most unjustly on headmasters and science teachers. Whoever may be to blame, we must surely exempt the teachers. Naturally they are anxious to make the science teaching in their schools as efficient as possible, but in many cases it

would have meant financial disaster to cut themselves adrift from the grants, by which alone it was possible to keep the science department of the school afloat. Moreover, the improved method of teaching meant more laboratory accommodation, better equipment, smaller classes, and an increased teaching staff.

In 1890, the Local Taxation (Customs and Excise) Act altered the position of affairs. Money was placed in the hands of the County Councils for distribution for purposes of technical instruction. One useful avenue was at once discovered in the assistance of secondary schools under public management for the strengthening of the science side. Liberal grants were made for equipment of laboratories, lecture-rooms, and workshops, and maintenance grants were made to enable the schools to live up to their increased facilities for science teaching by an increased staff, and in many cases a more efficient staff. I believe throughout the country the treatment of secondary schools in this respect has been very generous, and I venture to think no money has been better spent.

In inspecting secondary schools in London in 1892 for the purpose of Mr Llewellyn Smith's report, I was very much impressed with the unsatisfactory nature of the science teaching, especially in connection with experimental science. Young boys were introduced to difficult branches of the subject, and facts the bearing of which was imperfectly understood were committed to memory to meet the exigencies of grant-earning examinations. The recent introduction of courses in experimental science in which the work is almost entirely practical, and includes useful exercises in elementary mensuration, weighings and elementary mechanics, has been attended with the best results. Boys and girls take the greatest possible interest in this work, and when the exercises are arranged in a systematic manner it forms a valuable introduction to other. branches of physical science.

In the teaching of chemistry radical changes have also been

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introduced. Qualitative analysis, which has always been the bane of practical chemistry teaching, is now taking its proper position in the courses of instruction in this subject. In badlyequipped laboratories, where thirty or forty boys were taken by one master, it was the only kind of practical work possible. The necessary appliances consisted almost entirely of test tubes and bottles of reagents; and, moreover, grants were awarded on the results of examinations in this subject. A scheme of work including the investigation of bodies, the preparation of gases, etc., and the general introduction of quantitative exercises, is only possible where the laboratory is well equipped, and, which is a matter of the greatest importance, where there is an adequate teaching staff, so that not more than twenty boys do practical work together under one master.

In a few cases there is a tendency to cling to old methods of practical work, but the more rational kind of instruction is rapidly gaining ground, and the teaching in the lecture-room and laboratory is no longer divorced as in the days of qualitative analysis. The science masters and mistresses generally appreciate the change as much as the boys and girls.

The equipment of science lecture-rooms supplied with adequate apparatus has rendered possible the proper illustration of science lectures. Under the old conditions, where an ordinary class-room usually served the purpose, there was a natural tendency to dispense with experiments, their place being taken by diagrams on the blackboard or the descriptions of them in text-books. The appointment of additional science masters has had a marked effect on the improvement in this direction. The preparation of the experiments for a lecture should take as long as the delivery of the lecture itself, and it is imperative that a lecture-room with proper appliances should be set apart for work of this kind, and that the staff should be adequate.

In the county of London, as the result of liberal grants made for the equipment of science lecture-rooms and labora

tories in secondary schools, a very great change has been effected in the practical nature of teaching. To give some idea of the influence so exerted I may perhaps be allowed to give some statistics which were obtained in this connection, following on the award of grants for this purpose.

The improvement indicated in this table has continued to the present time, so that at present there is very little theoretical instruction given in public secondary schools in London which is not definitely associated with suitable practical work.

Here then we see how gladly teachers avail themselves of opportunities of making science instruction more practical, and consequently more rational. In this they have been aided in every possible way by the very enlightened and generous action of the Science and Art Department in connection with what are termed schools of science, in which, so far at any rate as the first and second years' courses of instruction are concerned, great latitude is permitted to the teachers in drawing up schemes of study suitable to their schools, provided they come within the fundamental requirements of the regulations with regard to these schools.

In a syllabus which has been drawn up by a Committee of the Incorporated Association of Head Masters, a very satisfactory and rational scheme of work on elementary science has been produced. In submitting this scheme to teachers the Committee say: