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J. STUDUOLME.j

in America where home .science was taugtit an a general rule the Professor of Home Science was also the Dean of the women's department, and had general supervision over the hostel. 24. Do you not think it would be advisable that while }uu kept the professor to teach the science you should have sonic one else to teach the art ! 1 lake it that ii would be the art of housekeeping that would be taught in the hostel, whereas it is domestic science that, is taught from the Chair I—A1 —A capable proiessor should be able to do both—should have sufficient knowledge of both to be able to set that it was properly done. 25. Has it ever occurred to you that it might be an advantage to have a creche in connection with the hostel so that women could be educated in the duties of motherhood as well as in the duties of actual housekeeping ( —.l think it would. I think the hostel should be the centre of the teaching of everything concerning the home duties of women. 26. 1 take it I am only expressing the opinion of those interested in education generally when I say that your own action has been very greatly appreciated. What J want to know is, can you give us any idea whatever as to how we might secure the same practical interest of others in Zealand that you have shown] — 1 do not know thai 1 can make suggestions. 1 think it would be a very good thing if more Civil servants or others who were able to further this kind of teaching could have personal knowledge by seeing what is being done in Canada and America. If they could see the colleges that have been created by Sir William McDonald and carried out by Professor Robertson at St. Ann's College near Montreal, and at the McDonald Hall at Guelph, 1 think it would be a revelation to many. 27. Mr. McCallum.] You were- first asked for £300 a year for three years to give this thing a trial 9 — Yes, it was at first £,300 for three years, then £-'500 was asked for four years, and then the University authorities wanted to have more assurance (for rive years) in what they were doing as to taking any degree students for a course of three years. 28. You then got the Dunedin people to join you, and the contributions were made up to £500 1— Yes. 29. And that was guaranteed for four years —that is, £2,000 was contributed privately for the purpose of giving this a trial? —It is guaranteed for five years. 30. That makes it £2,500. You say that it would take £1,000 a year now, practically, to put this on a lair footing : that means £20,000 capital. Do you think the experiment so far justifies the Government in practically putting £20,000 into this scheme? From the knowledge you have gathered in the experimental stages of this class, do you as a business man think the Government would be justified in doing what you have asked us to do'/ Is it a business proposition for the Government?—l have gone very closely into the work that lias been done in America and Canada and England, and the results that .'ire so far apparent from the work of home teaching in those countries. I put in two months in America in doing little else but seeing where the teaching had been carried out and getting into personal touch with the leaders of this movement. And from what I have seen in America and Canada and England I think that £50,000 would not be too much for the Government to spend to put one Chair on a thoroughly sound basis, and to encourage the students to go to that Chair and to get the teaching firmly established in this country. I do not think we shall get it put on a thoroughly firm footing until we have a Chair of our own and give training by our own teachers, because we shall need a great many teachers in our technical and other schools, and they are more likely to be satisfactory to this country if we can give them a sound training in New Zealand. And what ] should like to see occasionally would be the head or some Civil servant taking a periodical trip to keep himself in touch with the best teaching in other countries. If we judged simply from what lias gone on in New Zealand —from the two or three years' experience in New Zealand—l do not think that either the results or what we can see from New Zealand alone would justify an expenditure of £20,000 or perhaps less, because il would then be purely in the nature of experiment. But it is altogether beyond the stage of experiment elsewhere. 31. You are advising us rather on what you know outside of New Zealand. You do not seem to know a great deal of the working of this particular school, but you have a knowledge of the American eystem. All we have got before us is this : Air. Hogbep tells us that " this department " —home science—" is found at present only in the University of Otago, and the staff consists of one professor " —and we are told she is ill most of her timt —" and one lecturer. There should also be a chief demonstrator of tin- practical work in cookery and other applied branches of the science, and. as the number of students increase, junior demonstrators for the science laboratories." Thai is all t lie information we have got. What you are putting to us. I take it, is this: that from your knowledge of the value of this outside Now Zealand altogether you think the Government would be well advised to spend £50,000? —Yes. 32. You < l< i not think, from what we have gleaned from New Zealand, that it would be advisable to spend the £20,0001—1f I had not had knowledge elsewhere I would not. But I should just like to point oui this : 1 do not think Miss Boys-Smith has been ill all the time. I do not know thai she has not been able to carry out her duties; but she is not of robust health, and, of course. Miss Boys-Smith is not necessarily permanently there. If her health were so bad that she could not carry on the work some other professor would come. There are some very able women who would be available from America. 33. Mr. Side;/.] I understand that you are not in a position to express an opinion as to how the work done at the Otago School, so far as it has gone, compares with that at similar schools which you had the opportunity of visiting in America? —The course is very similar to what is being done in England—as to the general syllabus. 34. W r hat school did Professor Boys-Smith come from? —She was teaching part of the course at the Cheltenham Ladies' College in England. 35. Did she have any American experience at all? —No.