E.—IB.

too from the exaggerated importance attached to spelling. As a rule, more time is given to the spelling of the words in the reading-book than to their correct pronunciation or enunciation, or to meanings and comprehension of subject-matter. Spelling has always been one of the pass subjects for the standards; and, while we fail children who cannot correctly spell words that they will certainly never use in written composition or even in their speech, the proper knowledge and appreciation of the meanings of really necessary words receive nothing like the attention that they require. We are surely making but a feeble effort to counteract the growing tendency towards solecisms and provincialisms when we so often allow children to leave school "clipping" and mispronouncing some of the simplest and commonest words in the language, and yet waste precious hours in drilling them in the correct spelling of words quite outside the vocabulary of every-day life. We are convinced that if more time were given to intelligent and thoughtful reading there would hardly be any necessity for a separate place on the time-table for spelling. Grammar is a subject that for years past has been reported upon as unsatisfactory from one end of the colony to the other, but it is only now that provision has been made for a saner treatment of this subject, and we look forward to greatly improved results in the future, more particularly in its application to composition. Teachers are readily adopting the suggestion in our last report with regard to the use of suitable poetry books, and the effect on the recitation of many schools is already apparent. We are not altogether in favour of fixing the limit of the number of lines to be learned in any one standard. We would rather that the teacher selected three or four pieces with a view to illustrating different styles and motives of composition, irrespective of quantity. If a teacher selects " How they brought the good news to Aix " as an example of metro and rhythm expressing action and movement, the second piece should be one stimulating the imagination by vivid word-picturing, say, Byron's " Eve of Waterloo," while the third might deal with the emotions, or with the more moral and intellectual aspects of human nature, as, for instance, Wordsworth's " Character of the Happy Warrior," or a selection from Goldsmith's " Traveller," &c. In each case the treatment of the piece selected should be a step towards the study of literature as an art. It appears to us that as far as primary tfaining is concerned the English subjects provide the only means by which an intellectual foundation of some kind can be laid. We have every sympathy with the new method It: its desire not only to make the child a thoughtful and scientific observer of the matter and phenomena of nature, but by means of hand and eye training to adapt him to the exigencies of modern industrial and commercial life, but we also desire to see these somewhat materialistic activities under the control of intellectual aspirations and moral ideals. We want our young people to realise that there may be a higher and more important function for language than that of expressing the results of even the most scientific observation and induction —a consideration for which many of the apostles of the new " heuristic method " appear to us to have little regard. We note an improvement in the writing of a satisfactory proportion of those schools which last year were marked weak in this subject. In others it is still below requirements. We are surprised to have to call the attention of even experienced teachers to improper ways of holding the pen and incorrect position of the child when writing. We must confess, however, that the weak writing in several schools is to some extent due to the overcrowding of the lower standards. A .reduction has now been made in the demands for arithmetic as far as the extent of ground to be covered is concerned, and no doubt the new test cards (if the Department continues to issue these) will correspond with that reduction. Our experience is that in many cases the present S5 and S6 cards are too exacting, and, as the spirit of the new syllabus is so much more in the direction of reasonable treatment than of amount of matter, some of the more difficult problems and intricate processes might well be dispensed with. Arithmetic, generally speaking, is a strong subject in our schools, and if there has been too much teaching of examples at the expense of principles, then the tests are to blame. We notice that some of the highest authorities advocate more oral treatment of the subject with exercises in simple mental problems. We entirly agree with them, but unfortunately examination cards have not been at all in that direction. For many years it was customary in this district to give to each standard a certain number of simple problems to be worked " at sight," their value being equivalent to 20 per cent, of the whole arithmetic test for the standard pass. The results were most beneficial, and we very much regret that the practice was ever discontinued. In political geography the work done in most schools has been satisfactory, but physical has been intelligently taught in only a few. The instructions in the new syllabus are very clear, and we need not repeat them here, except to advise every teacher in drawing up a scheme of work to make such a selection from the programme there set out as will allow of illustration from the geographical features of his own school district. Such a programme will awaken the child's attention to real facts, and will enable his initial conceptions to be rightly formed. His knowledge is first to embrace his own town or district, then his own colony, and next the Empire to which he belongs, and from that his outlook is to be extended to the whole world. Many schools used reading-books in history, and in others these were combined with oral lessons with generally satisfactory results. In future a course of lessons is to be selected from the programme laid down in the new syllabus, and the object to be kept in view is to train the child thoroughly to understand and appreciate his privileges and duties as a member of the community in which he resides, as a New-Zealander, and as a citizen of the British Empire. Object lessons on better lines are gradually replacing lessons which gave the child mere information. The same may be said of elementary science. In our district the science subjects from which a selection may be made are chemistry, physics, physiology, botany, agricultural knowledge, and domestic economy. Of these chemistry and physiology are the ones for which teachers show the greatest predilection. In many schools the latter subject was taught on old lines, principally from a text-book, but most teachers are now realising that no science subject can be successfully

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