E.-14

1904. NEW ZEALAND.

EDUCATION: SOME ASPECTS OF EDUCATION IN NEW ZEALAND. (REPORT BY THE DIRECTOR OF EDUCATION (Mr. F. TATE), PRESENTED TO BOTH HOUSES OF PARLIAMENT OF THE STATE OF VICTORIA.)

Presented to both Houses of the General Assembly by Command of His Excellency.

Sir,— Melbourne, 18th June, 1904. I have the honour to present the following report in connection with my recent visit to New Zealand. In accordance with your expressed desire I have written at length, and have commented freely upon Victorian practice wherever I felt the circumstances warranted it. I had specially favourable opportunities of learning the system of educational administration which obtains in New Zealand, and the ideals which animate those who are placed in control of the schools, from the fact that I accepted an invitation to attend the Educational Conference held in Wellington for the purpose of considering the recently revised syllabus of instruction. This Conference lasted some two weeks, and was attended by all of the district Inspectors, and by representative delegates from the Teachers' Institute. I next visited the Wanganui, Auckland, Wellington, Canterbury, South Canterbury, and Otago schools districts, and was given the fullest opportunity of inspecting the schools in order to make myself acquainted with the methods of instruction employed, and the character of the buildings, furniture, and fittings. Unfortunately, my time was limited, but, owing to the uniform kindness of the members of the School Boards, of Inspectors, and of teachers, in placing their services at my disposal both early and late, I was able to gather a great amount of information in a comparatively short time. Aim of this Report. I desire to say at the outset that I have not endeavoured to report upon New Zealand education in itself, but my chief concern has been to notice points of difference from and superiority to the Victorian system. In Victoria the Education Department is directly concerned with primary education and technical education only. There is among us no public conception of a fully organized national education scheme from the most elementary to the highest grade. The example of New Zealand is, therefore, worthy of consideration, and I have commented upon it at some length. Our indifference and ignorance in the matter of co-ordination of educational agencies must be removed if we are to hold our own in the competition of States. Co-ordination means economy of money and of effort, and at the same time increased efficiency. All parts of the national education scheme must be organized sooner or later through a central authority, and the sooner we are alive to this fact the better. There is in progress at present throughout the British Empire, and in a still more active form in the United States, a complete change of attitude towards public education, both as regards the subject-matter of instruction and methods employed, and as regards the part which a completely organized education scheme should perform in national life. No student of education in other lands can fail to recognise the truth of this. The report of the Mosely Education Commission, 1904, emphasizes it strongly, and so also does the report of the New South Wales Education Commissioners, 1903. While in some respects Victorian education can hold its own with education in neighbouring States, there is great need of a popular awakening to the possibilities of a national scheme. So fa ras I can judge, there is in no other Australian State or in New Zealand any considerable section of t1.3 people holding the illiberal opinion often of late expressed in Victoria, that the State's duty is to provide as a complete education merely a narrow treatment of the "three r's," while other subjects which have been adopted in every progressive community, including the other Australian States, are designated " luxuries " and " fads."

I—E. 14.