E.—lb.

may possibly have been too difficult an extract for the brains of an ordinary child, but one would hardly have expected the rendering, " The people tell short stories of his life and his bones stick out." What appreciation of English verse does a Sixth Standard lad exhibit in his notion of Pull many a gem of purest ray serene The dark unfathomed caves of ocean bear, when ho renders it, " There is many a gem of light in the dark caves of the ocean bear "1 The correcting of sentences was usually right, but the reason, if given, almost invariably wrong, and in Standard VI. similar questions set were poorly answered. An elementary training in this subject is of great practical utility, but methods of teaching still afford much room for improvement. Full oral answering of all questions may, with advantage, be insisted upon, and the oral composition now prescribed for Standards I. and 11. should be of great value as initial stages, if the teacher's treatment is not lacking in sympathy, but is such as to call forth active co-operation of each member of the class. Arithmetic. —This, the subject that always taxes to the utmost the capacity of both teacher and taught, has naturally suffered most from the bad attendance and the shortening of the school year. The proportion that were able to do the departmental tests —53 per cent, of those present —was much lower than usual, the figures for the different standard classes being: Standard 111. —1903, 74, 1902 76; Standard 1V—1903 53, 1902 64; Standard V—1903 37, 1902 51; Standard Vl.— 1903 41, 1902 55. In these estimates we have, as usual, reckoned as failures those that in arithmetic attempted the work of a lower standard. Though the sums set were somewhat difficult, it cannot be urged that they were beyond the requirements of the syllabus. We very commonly found that questions selected from the lower-standard course were but poorly attempted. Evidently no time had been available for revising back work, and this could not have been thoroughly assimilated. Too rapid promotion, and in some cases the promotion of those who at last examination were deemed unfit, have conduced to these results. The passing of the Act enabling the Governor in Council to introduce the metric system emphasizes the necessity for thoroughly teaching the weights and measures prescribed. In the new syllabus the work has been spread over seven standards, and better grading has been observed in marking the different stages. Limiting the teaching of proportion to the unitary method is, we consider, a serious blot in the system. Several unnecessary items in the former syllabus have been omitted, and oral work is an important factor in the training. It is to be hoped that the scheme adopted will prove less burdensome, and tend to a much-needed improvement. Geography. —Little improvement was noticeable in the treatment of this subject. We feel assured that much progress would result from a freer use in the oral work of small sketch-maps quickly drawn, and not necessarily of mathematical accuracy. In several schools a beginning was made in correlating plasticine modelling with geography. This is an advance in the right direction. The mathematical and physical sections, on which most stress is laid in the new syllabus, are still the weakest parts of the work. Drawing. —This was, on the whole, good: the ruler had, however, in the lower standards of a number of the smaller schools played too large a part, and the model-drawing was rarely of a high order. The new regulations, which require five courses in Standard VI. and four in Standard V., appear to us too severe. The programme for Standard VI. comprises scale, patterndrawing, freehand drawing, elementary solid geometry, and model-drawing. Grammar. —Under the new code grammar is mainly relegated to Standard VII. This is as it should be. The subject has become overburdened with the veriest minutiw of distinctions. The solving of problematic parts of speech like " but," " as," &c, the compound gerund, and the summation of the uses of the infinitive, &c, may well be left to the secondary school and the university. We can enjoy apples and get good from them without knowing the names of all the kinds, all the varieties of taste and advantage, the various soils, the pests and means of extermination. Life is too short for that. These are technical branches, and the expert must specialise; but the aim hitherto has been to make every one a specialist in grammar. " All must speak," the literati of the past have said, and on this peg they have hung a demand for an exhaustive knowledge of grammatical niceties not only of the present but even of the past and dead.. "All must speak," yet we do not demand that all should learn acoustics and cram up the niceties of vibration. In future the grammar of function will be treated broadly, and formal grammar will be studied only in the more striking distinctions of number and tense which are continually in use. Gender, the cases of pronouns, and incidental grammar generally will be treated under correction of sentences and in composition without a microscopic delving for illustrations. When one is no lor.ger required to overload the memory he is given the opportunity to cultivate the understanding. History. —During the past few years there has been a tendency to substitute handwork for history, and this has brought into the minds of some teachers an idea that the subject is unimportant. Probably there is in the individual no more powerful incentive to a progressive raising of the ideals than the sense of ancient birth, and history is in this invaluable, that rightly taught it is able to inspire and upraise the youth of the nation by cultivating the idea of a national pedigree. As the British Empire is the proudest known to historical annals, the long review of its famous story gradually arouses in even the meanest-born an idea of his high estate as one of the great family that has achieved so much. Its traditions cast a light around him that cannot leave him commonplace. Innumerable instances convince him that native ability and well-directed effort have made many a man his own ancestor. He feels that he too must strive. We are profoundly impressed with the conviction that the dynamic force of the Imperial idea is greater than that of all the rivers of Asia. It is with feelings of pleasure, therefore, that we find in the new syllabus stress again laid on history, by setting forth a definite and well-selected though somewhat extensive programme of work.

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