In matters such as compulsory school attendance, it is of little use to legislate ahead of public feeling, and may do more harm than good; but it may be well to test the public pulse in this matter, and, perhaps, to educe or evoke or evolve a manifestation of the public sentiment; and doctors might differ as to which is the correct treatment-blister or poultice. It would probably not be difficult to alter the compulsory attendance age from twelve years to fourteen, as has been demanded in some quarters, though no doubt there would be some opposition on the part of those who find it to their interest, as they think, to withdraw their children from school, or allow the children to withdraw themselves from school, when the children have reached their twelfth birthday. Then the present compulsory limit of attendance to sixty days in the half-year has no logical force. No doubt it was extracted from a similar law elsewhere. If sixty days, why not eighty days, or 80 per cent., and so on? For my own part, I should prefer to see all numerical limitations set aside, and the ground assumed that a child should be at school, if good cause cannot be shown why he should be elsewhere, until it is lawful for him to leave school and go to work, with arrangements to provide that parents and children who are criminally neglectful shall be dealt with from day to day, before fault has had time to accumulate.

The present mode of dealing with defaulters in respect of compulsory school attendance I have always regarded as unsatisfactory. By the time the half-yearly reports from teachers have been dealt with, the action is so far after the event that the latter is out of memory, and the defaulter may be out of reach. Moreover, the warnings and prosecutions are productive of so little appreciable result that I believe the game is not worth the candle.

The political situation is no doubt responsible for the postponement of schemes that have been foreshadowed regarding the appointment and training of pupil-teachers and teachers, together with other matters educational, connecting our primary schools with continuation schools, high schools, technical colleges, grammar schools, and a university; and as there has been no forward movement in regard to these schemes, it does not seem worth while to discuss them further at present.

One matter referred to in my last report—namely, the mode of paying head teachers—has been considered, and a scheme has been devised that perhaps may give more general satisfaction than the rule now in force. As the scheme has not yet been submitted to or approved by the Cabinet, I cannot give details; but the salient features are (a) the preservation of existing salaries that would suffer under the scheme; (b) payment of classification salary, together with an additional sum, graduated according to the size of the school; (c) the limitation of a maximum salary for each class of school; and (d) a more equable graduation in the classification of schools, with an increase in the number of classes, so as to make the possible fluctuations in salaries less violent.

I have nothing new to report in connection with the general management of our schools. The disagreeables of administration are no more and no fewer, no graver and no more trifling than in past years. Nothing has occurred to unduly depress me or to make me less hopeful that the work of the Department is not fairly meeting the circumstances of the State as these exist and as they arise and develop. The story of the inspectors, gathered from the myriad conditions they have met, shows a high level of earnest effort, rising into enthusiasm in many teachers, and transfused into many of the children of the State. We do not expect to work the service with angels, for the children are not angels-yet; and the conditions are not those generally attributed to the place where angels are commonly reputed to dwell; but only with ordinary people, having a fair amount of brains, the usual degree of health and strength, free from open blame, with no more than the excusable assortment of petty redeeming vices, desirous to do their duty and honestly earn their salaries, and open to advice. One may read-I have read—a thousand and more reports of inspections of schools and not met with so much as one in a hundred, in which there is revealed sufficient reason for finding direct and tangible fault with the work of the teacher, though it may and does often happen that the record shows work which, while it does not deserve blame, yet does not call for praise. This is the way that most of the world's work looks under criticism, and we cannot fairly expect otherwise in our schools. Yet, surely praise of a kind is due to the teacher who doggedly sticks to his task, with honest purpose, year by year, sometimes amid discomfort and discouragement.

The teaching does seem to be growing more living, more real, more educative. The inspectors, I see, are watchful and helpful. The teachers are showing initiative and resource, some of them to a degree that puts the Department on its mettle to meet them. The children are put in the way of learning things that should help them to live their lives aright, both in the strife and turmoil of work and in the hours of their leisure. Happy he who can make leisure and use it well.

The examination in music has always been to me unsatisfactory, in the absence of any test of the practical ability of examinees to sing or to teach singing. I recall that some fifty years ago normal students were not permitted to take the music paper, under the rules of the Privy Council at that time, until they had first obtained a certificate from the music master that they could sing or could play some musical instrument. Nearly thirty years ago teachers in this State were called upon to declare specifically their qualifications in music, practical and theoretical, and to produce their papers ad rem; and these were duly recorded. Since then we have not used any special effort to grade or distinguish teachers in

respect of their power to sing or to teach singing. I think we have taken the practical ability for granted, using it where we have found it to exist, and taking note of it, though not positively tabulating it in the record; and I fear that this rather easy-going practice on the part of the Department has had the effect of throwing an undue burden of music teaching in our schools on a select few of our teachers who love the art and are notably proficient. Of course, the theoretical examination is indispensable as a measure of the extent of musical culture, but in actual school work an ounce of practical ability is worth a pound of theoretical acquirements, or, in other words, a teacher who can truly and really teach children to sing properly and to read readily easy music is sixteen times more valuable to the Department, so far as music goes, than a teacher who cannot do that, and yet may be able to analyse a Beethoven sonata. Now that we have again really taken up the work of music in our schools-I hope this time "for keeps" -it behoves us to see that our teachers are practically qualified. To that end a beginning will be made, as is shown in the Education Office Gazette for the current month, at the annual general examination in December next, and teachers will have an opportunity of coming forward for practical examination in Brisbane at that time. The examinations will be extended to other places, as arrangement can be made, from time to time. Mr. Sampson will be the examiner, and the examination will be of three grades of difficulty, with option to any teacher or pupil-teacher to pass the highest if he can, or to begin with the lowest if he likes. A record will be kept of all passes; and, by and by, it may be found possible, with the progressive advance of our teachers in practical skill in music, to regard the lack of such qualification as almost a physical disability that should debar from the service. Of course, we shall try not to lose teachers who are good except in music.

In the music of the schools I seem to detect a slight advance. Some teachers are troubled still over what they deem to be the too difficult requirements of the programme of instruction. The fruits of the true teaching are not easily discernible by those whose ideal is a good schoolful of rather coarse singing. They should educate themselves, and allow themselves to be educated in the delicacies of voice production and rhythmic utterance, so that when they have taught their pupils to know and to understand musical symbols, the children may be able to translate these into sounds that cannot fail to be agreeable to a listener-even to a listener not greatly cultured. Songs should be sung, of course; but they should be good songs, worth learning and worth singing, not the flashy trash of which there is much in evidence plenty of it in songs published for school use. We hope to be able shortly to issue a text-book in music that will show what needs to be taught and learned, and that will have a selection of good songs. There is nothing to be gained by wasting time over music intrinsically worthless; but there is absolutely no limit to the artistic polish that may legitimately be expended upon a worthy lyric set to fitting and worthy music, as witness a rendering of "Home, Sweet Home," by Albani, or "Robin Adair," by Melba. I feel sure that at a school display or break-up-and some schools will have displays—a simple black board demonstration of the power of all classes to read original musical exercises, deftly set on the spur of the moment, graded to suit from the little tots upwards, would fetch more real appreciation and hearty applause from parents and others interested in the school who might be present on the occasion than any other item that could be brought before the audience, especially if the rendering shows attention to rhythm and exhibits the soft pure tone that should alone be tolerated.

The committee that was appointed to devise a new set of copy-books for use in the schools under the Department has practically completed its task. It comprises three officers of the Department, one district inspector, and three of the town teachers-two males and one female. A style of writing has been agreed upon. A series of copy-books has been systematically drawn up. The gradation and ruling and method are according to the best modern ideas and the latest improvements in the teaching of penmanship. The headlines show progression through the usual elementary forms and stages, passing into Australian names and geographical and historical facts, followed by numbers dealing with business forms, and ending with a number devoted to choice literary extracts. The matter now waits authority for the necessary expenditure. The recommendation of the committee will be to place the copy it has agreed upon in the hands of an expert for execution, ready for the lithographer, after which tenders may be called, in such fashion as may be decided on by the Minister, for the printing and issue of the copy-books to schools.

Another committee appointed by the Minister is engaged in dealing with the matter of providing a new set of reading books for school use. It consists of three Departmental officers, four inspectors, and four teachers. The committee has already come to a unanimous agreement that the reading books shall be of a general literary character, as distinguished from books devoted to special subjects, such as geography, history, or any branch or branches of science; and also that about a quarter of the matter shall be distinctly Australian, of which quarter about half shall be matter referring to Queensland, in each book of the set-at all events, in the books above the primers. For a considerable time the committee has been occupied in reading, analyzing, and criticising some two dozen sets of readers that have been received from publishing houses at various times in recent years, and this very necessary work is now approaching completion. Shortly, we may expect fresh sets of readers, in response to our advertisement, and the merits of these will also be carefully considered. It has been authoritatively decided that the whole of the work connected with the printing and binding of the books accepted shall be done within the State.

The need of a new set of reading books has been recognized for some years. Within my time, in the course of the last forty years or so, there have been three sets of readers in use, for about equal periods first, the Irish National series; then a set published by Collins and Co.; and, lastly, the Royal Readers, published by Nelson and Sons, which are still in use. These Royal Readers are good books, but they are considered to be rather out of date in some respects. Much of the reading matter that must appear in any school reading books must be of a kind that cannot grow old; but discovery, invention, exploration, travel, have brought to light many new ideas that our children should know, in the progress of the world, and the increasing and ever daily expanding spread of literature. Any series of school books will be new to the children, as they advance from class to class, but the children will not gather the new ideas from the old books; and any series of books becomes stale to the teachers after a lengthened period spent in travelling through them with their successive school generations of pupils; besides that, the more active-minded of the teachers find themselves constantly needing to expand or correct their text as the years move on.

The foregoing thoughts lead me on to speak of the School Paper-the Queensland School Paper. The present programme of instruction in primary schools, still spoken of by oldsters as "the new schedule," came into force on the 1st January, 1905. The preface to the syllabus recommends, among other things, that "in addition to the reading books provided by the Department the pupils should supplement their reading with other approved books"; and the paragraph containing that quotation concludes with "probably the school paper to be authorized will be found sufficient." The first issue of the School Paper referred to is dated 1st March, 1905, and it has continued, in monthly issue, to date. From 1st April, 1908, the paper has been edited from the Office, by one of the inspectors, in the hope that the paper will be improved by more careful supervision than it was found possible to give to it previously without some such appointment. It appears that some teachers use the reading books but little, relying mainly on the School Paper for their direct teaching of English. It was not intended that such a practice should prevail. The well-considered, thoughtfully-arranged lessons and literature of the reading books are the text from which English should mainly be taught. The children should be encouraged to buy the paper. It costs but a penny a month. They should read it for the love of reading; read it to their parents; ask their teacher about it, as he should ask them; and find both pleasure and instruction in it; but the force of the teaching of English should be concentrated on the reading book, which is to the children their classic library for the time being, wealthy of thought and worthy of pains. The School Paper at best is but fugitive literature, culled from current magazines, to interest and amuse principally, with a modicum of instruction obtainable in passing. One reads the newspapers and the magazines, of course; but one allows them to drift on the deck of the steamer, to be left on the seat of the railway carriage, or to reach the waste paper basket in due time; one does not store them in successive monthly wheelbarrowfuls on the shelves where are the Bible and Shakespeare and Addison and Ruskin and Carlyle and Scott and Dickens and Tennyson and Browning and Macaulay and the rest of themthe poets, the sages, the philosophers, the heroes, and the martyrs of travel and science, that belong to all time. If it is said that a school paper could be constructed on classic lines, I should have to admit that; but I should feel warranted in saying that it would not then be supplementary reading in the sense referred to in the preface to our schedule, as above quoted. I do not wish to dogmatize in this matter or to lay down hard-and-fast lines; but I give it as my opinion that teachers will not obtain satisfactory results in the teaching of English by using the School Paper wholly or even mainly, to the exclusion of the reading books, and I leave it with the inspectors, who I cannot believe are otherwise minded, to impress this lesson upon teachers.

It is noteworthy that the recent list of grade promotions in the classification of teachers, from 1st July, 1907, had no sooner appeared than a succession of letters were received at this Office from teachers desirous of being informed why their names did not appear in the list. Some of these writers discreetly and delicately suggested a clerical error; others hinted at their merits with modest assurance, suggesting subterraneously that the Department, being busy, had overlooked them, and requesting reconsideration; and some were demands flaming with indignation. This kind of thing happens every time that such a list is gazetted, and it will likely occur again, when the next list of promotions, from 1st July, 1908, is made public. It seems needful to say something that will afford information regarding the way in which these promotions are determined, and that may help to allay the feeling generated by disappointment. The regulations of the Department provide for the constitution by the Minister of a board to advise him in the matter. The board used to be the Under Secretary (Mr. Anderson), the General Inspector (myself), and a District Inspector; now it consists of the Under Secretary, an inspector, and myself. The reports of every teacher eligible for promotion in classification are brought before this board for review. Each member of the board traverses these reports separately. When each member has prepared his list of teachers to be recommended for promotion the board meets. Where the lists coincide, promotion goes, of course. Where there is a difference of opinion-and there is often difference-research, discussion, comparison takes place; and neither time nor pains is spared to arrive at a finding which shall be the decision of the board. Some teachers seem to think that promotion will follow automatically at the end of the minimum period of service that will permit the step, if there is nothing bad against them in their record: that is not so; and I hope it never will be so, else the worthy will never get foremost-where they should be. The board requires a good report for each year of the

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period since the last promotion-not merely a report that is not bad. It is the teacher's business to see that the circumstances of his service transfer from school to school, for example-do not prevent a record of his work at least once a year. Moderate reports may bring promotion in time, but not necessarily the minimum time. There is even a tendency on the part of the board, I have noticed, to promote where the record is not up to a moderate standard, through mere effluxion of time. It is a dangerous thing to promote the unworthy-dangerous to the Department, to Department, to the service, and even to the unworthy promoted. Promotion carries responsibility, and it is very undesirable that a teacher should bear a certain stamp, and not be able to take up the like duty with others bearing a similar stamp. Moreover a teacher's reports, to warrant a recommendation for promotion, should be consistent-not out-and-in, as the racing men call it and should show progress. There is never any difficulty about promoting the deserving-they promote themselves; and there is as little difficulty in condemning to stagnation the undeserving-they do it themselves, and are aware of it, and of the reasons for it. It is the half-and-half people that are difficult to dispose of. Some of them may deserve praise, in a way, as I have already said, for a consistent walk and a certain amount of plodding perseverance in duty, being tolerable at a certain level and in a certain sphere, but not able to bear the fiercer light that would beat upon them on a higher pedestal, amid other surroundings. After reading thousands of reports, I am in a position to say that there are many teachers who are not aware of their own limitations. From year's end to year's end they are under criticism and advice from able, shrewd, kindly head teachers, and, from lazy lack of interest, they take no heed, or they are conceited and know better. It is frequently patent that they do not even take the trouble to put their best foot foremost when the inspector calls. They may be clever in some ways— as students perhaps but they may lack initiative, resource, and sympathy; they may be dead-and-alive hum-drum teachers; they may be weak in discipline, deficient in control, unable to rouse the child mind to action; and bad managers, with slovenly, untidy ways about them. Do they possibly hope that the inspector does not see, or seeing, does not report? They could not be promoted to tend sheep on the Delectable Mountains, where the pilgrims found shepherds in charge whose names are Knowledge, Experience, Watchful, and Sincere. Finally, I give it as a fact of my experience that the board has no pleasure in retarding promotion, and is ever more ready to seize upon reasons for promotion than reasons for refusing it.

I do not think, Sir, that I need write more at present. I know, as usual, that I have not written a report that pleases myself; and I know, indeed, that much which I have now written is not a report at all, properly speaking; but I have endeavoured to bring under your notice matters that are of interest to the Department and to the service, and I hope to be excused if I have, for the purpose of bringing the affairs of the Department up to the present date, trenched upon matters that hardly with propriety can be said to come within the scope of the year under review.

D. EWART, Director of Education.

I have, &c.,

The Honourable the Secretary for Public Instruction.

Appendix B.

REPORT OF MR. DISTRICT INSPECTOR SHIRLEY.

New Farm, 13th February, 1908.

SIR, I have the honour to forward my Annual Report on the South-east Moreton District for the year 1907.

DISTRICT.

The boundaries of this district are from South Brisbane to the border of New South Wales, and from Moreton Bay to the watershed between the Logan and Bremer Rivers. Outside Brisbane the residents are chiefly dairy farmers. Settlement is rapidly extending into the mountainous country along the watersheds, and there is little available public land for selection.

SCHOOLS.

South-east Moreton is now dotted over with schools. Travelling along any of the main roads, school buildings are noted every six or seven miles. At the end of 1907, there were in operation 41 State and 45 Provisional schools. In addition, 7 schools not under the Department are also subject to examination. The 84 schools maintained by the State provide 69,000 square feet of floor space in their schoolrooms. At the rate of 10 square feet of floor space for each child, this means accommodation for 6,900 scholars in average attendance. These schools are provided also with verandas, which are available for teaching purposes in warm or calm weather. New Provisional schools were opened at Cryna and Tabragalba, and others were authorised at Currumbin (2), Norwell, Rathdownie, and Tylerville.

ATTENDANCE.

In the quarter preceding inspection 6,730 children were in attendance at these 84 schools, so that the accommodation is equal to the total enrolment. Of the number on roll 4,512, or 67 per cent., attended eight out of every ten possible attendances. This is a satisfactory feature of the attendance, as the year was marked by quite a number of partial epidemics. The average daily attendance was 5,304 6, or 78'8 out of every possible hundred. Much has been said about the hindrance to school work caused by the dairying industry, and in other portions of the State this may possibly be true; but, in the Logan Valley, parents make every possible endeavour to keep their children steadily in attendance during school age. But dairy farming does affect the attendance in another way. It was formerly quite common to find boys and girls of fifteen or sixteen years of age on the rolls of small country schools. This is now very rarely the case. Whenever the inspection takes more than one day, the attendance on the second day shows an increase. The total number examined was 5,910, including the pupils of non-State schools, out of a total enrolment of 7,322, or 80'7 per cent.

BUILDINGS AND EQUIPMENT.

The old type of Provisional school has almost disappeared from the district. Many are of recent construction, and look neat and trim in their well-fenced school grounds. A few are not vested in the Department, and these privately-owned buildings are among the least satisfactory of their kind. Of 43 Provisional schools 5 report damaged fences, outhouses, or tanks; 1 school is reported as requiring to be painted. A fair proportion of these schools are surrounded by well-kept school gardens, and Thulumbah is an example of what can be done in rendering school grounds beautiful, attractive, and educational. I should like every Provisional school teacher in the district to see these grounds.

Nineteen of the 41 State schools report minor requirements in repairs, painting, or the supply of cabinets or bathrooms. Many of these were in process of supply at the date of inspection. Cabinets were recommended whenever sufficient material for use in object lessons had been collected. The supply of apparatus and teaching material was ample in every school. Where teachers are qualified in creamtesting, one-half the cost of the necessary apparatus is provided, and this subject is now taught in four schools.

TEACHERS.

In the 41 State schools 143 teachers are employed. Of these, 3 are of first-class rank, 25 of secondclass, 91 of third-class, 5 are unclassified, and there are 19 pupil-teachers. The average daily number of pupils for each State school teacher is, therefore, 317. In the seven schools not under State control 13 pupil-teachers are employed. These come up year by year for examination, and are tested like our own pupil-teachers. In the 43 Provisional schools there are 44 teachers, one being an assistant. Three have been trained in State schools, and are of third-class rank; three have passed the same examination, but have not been gazetted; five have passed several of the examinations for pupil-teacher; and one was trained at home. The remainder are almost wholly untrained. The training of teachers, especially of Provisional school and pupil teachers, is one of the chief duties of a Queensland inspector of schools. In many of the smaller schools it is more profitable to spend the whole time in exemplary teaching and in organizing than in testing the children. In State schools also the training of junior teachers needs. careful supervision from the inspector, except where the school is large enough to permit the head teacher to spend his whole time in organization, supervision, and specimen teaching.

RECORDS.

It is usual to find the school records neatly kept and duly posted. Forgetfulness occasionally causes a teacher to neglect to post the Time Book before commencing work, or the Time Book and Daily Report Book prior to leaving school. Very rarely the Work Book was not completely posted, and the teacher was found working by whim rather than by system, and at lessons that could not be prepared, since they were not selected beforehand. In many schools the time for roll-call was not in accord with directions. These may be found in Vol. V., page 156, of the official gazette, and direct that