J. STUDHOLME.]

5

1.—13 a.

regard to home science. I had no knowledge of it before. I was so impressed with what I saw that I made further inquiries, and from that beoame anxious that similar teaching should be carried out in New Zealand. 1 had no idea of the extent to which it was being developed in America, and 1 found they had been going on with that kind of teaching i'or ten or fifteen pears or more before I got there. Getting into touch with Professor Robertson gave me a stronger idea of the value of this teaching than anything else. If I had done nothing vise on my trip to Canada than get in touch and become acquainted with Professor Robertson I should have looked upon the trip as well worth having been taken. He is a wonderful man. 57. Mr. Malcolm.] What town and college is Professor Robertson at? — He was under the Government of Canada for a very long time. He was the Chief Agricultural Officer of the Canadian Government in London, and he gave up his official appointment in order to have the carrying-out of Sir William McDonald's plans with regard to education. Sir William McDonald is not an expert in education. He is a tobacco-manufacturer, but he is very much impressed with the value of what they call the newer education, and he looked about for some one who had the requisite knowledge and would carry out his wishes and to whom he could entrust the expenditure of his money, and he offered the position to Professor Robertson, who gave up his official position and spent several years in carrying out Sir William McDonald's schemes of consolidated schools and schemes of teaching home science and manual training. 58. Hon. Mr. Allen.] May 1 take it that Professor Robertson has strong ideas about the training for home science? —The main object of Professor Robertson is to provide the necessary equipment for training teachers who will be able to give teaching in tin primary and secondary schools of Canada in home science, manual training, and nature-study. Another of Sir William McDonald's and Professor Robertson's main ideas is to get country teachers. To produce efficient rural teachers with a love for the country you ought. 80 they say. to have your normal schools in the country closely associated with agricultural colleges, so that, living in toucli with farmers and farm students and country surroundings, they will get an interest in and a sympathy with the country life and be able to make better rural teachers. St. Anne's College, near Montreal, is on the junction of the St. Lawrence and the Ottawa, and that is a combined normal college and agricultural college for the training of ordinary school-teachers and the training of agricultural students. 59. Can you give an opinion yourself, or have you heard an opinion, as to this possible result from scientific training and home science and domestic arts, that it will put the position to those who are running the home upon a higher basis —cause them to take a little more interest in their work because it is based on science? —It is difficult to estimate the result. Teachers have told me that after they had been some time at a school like the one Sir William McDonald founded at Guelph it was a perfect revelation to them—the increased interest it has meant in their home duties and in country life; that they would go back to their work with an absolutely enlarged conception of what they are and what their possibilities are. 60. Would it, for instance, in your opinion remove the idea of drudgery?— That is certainly what it does. It raises the whole thing from a drudgery to a science. And that is what the aim of this Chair in Otago is—to give the general public a higher conception altogether of the dignity of home-work and the possibilities of it, and the way it appeals to the intellect and gives pla_y to all scientific knowledge. It is making practical, home, everyday use of the increased scientific knowledge and the various scientific experiments that are carried out. It is bringing the scientific knowledge of the day into the homes of the people, making use of it in everyday life. That is what is in the minds of these leaders of the home-science movement- to give it that enlarged idea; to make the use of the home interesting; to economize time and to give the women of the country more leisure; to make them masters of their work and get through their work with greater ease and knowledge, and then they will have more leisure for other culture. 61. You said that you were impressed with what you saw in America of home science? —Yes, very much. 62. You backed your impressions out of your pocket to the extent of £300 a year for five years?— Yes. 63. Do you see any reason to regret that? —No, I certainly see no reason to regret it. If that Chair can become an assured establishment, and the thing become thoroughly equipped and on a sound basis, it will lie infinitely the most satisfactory expenditure I have ever made —without comparison. 64. Do you know from your own experience whether there are some intelligent men in Dunedin who hold similar views to yourself on this question? — l believe there are a good many. You yourself can speak better on that point than 1 can. 65. Do you know whether the citizens of Dunedin —some of them, at any rate have backed their opinions out of their pockets too? —Yes, they have to a considerable extent—-a good many of them. 66. Do you think it is at all likely that a sensible Scots community like Dunedin would put their hands in their pockets unless they were satisfied they were spending their money on a good object , ? —l think they are the most cautious people in New Zealand. Thc\ are most generous. too, when they get " enthused " sufficiently. 67. Mr. Malcolm.] Can you tell us whether the students who take this home-science course are taking it with a view to becoming teachers of the science, or are taking it in order to practice it in their homes? —I think that for the degree course most of them are taking it with the idea of becoming teachers. One student has lately come from Victoria. She saw what teaching was available in Victoria, and she was not satisfied with that, and she has come to take up the degree course in Dunedin. She is getting one of the Government bursaries, and has in consequence bound herself to give so-many years' teaching in New Zealand at the end of her course.