ATTENDANCE. At the time of first inspection there were 4,273 children on the rolls of 34 State schools, 1,404 on the rolls of 51 Provisional schools, and an enrolment of 482 in 4 Private schools. The total enrolment was thus 6,159. The number of children present during a first inspection was 5,127.

GOVERNMENT. In nearly all schools good working conditions were secured without harshness. A considerable number of teachers, by constant firmness, sympathy, and goodwill towards their charges, have made the school a most valuable factor in the lives of their pupils. A few, having some deficiency in strength of will, patience, applicability, or power to move the minds of others, suffer discipline to grow lax and their work to become ineffective. Such teachers were advised and counselled at the time of inspection, and some received admonition from the Minister.

AVERAGE AGE AND CLASS TIME.-Taking into account the circumstances of this remote district, the excess of the average age is satisfactorily accounted for, and in very few cases is the time in class unduly prolonged.

INSTRUCTION.

Facility in mechanical Reading is very general. In many schools a proper amount of silent reading is used with advantage. Reading aloud, with due expression, and the proper delivery of a recitation, are met with in too few schools. Some teachers are securing what is desirable, and considerable advice and suggestion given at the time of inspection may bring about improvement in many cases. The grasp and appreciation of what is read, without which good delivery is not to be obtained, is greatly augmented by the judicious use of supplementary reading matter. Spelling is rarely confined to the words in the Readers, and the words of the child's own vocabulary are generally spelled correctly. Composition is, on the whole, fairly satisfactory, both in its oral and written forms. It is most successful where the mental communication between the teacher and the pupil is most complete, and in classes conducted by teachers who spare neither time nor pains in correcting the exercises in this subject. Formal grammar is not, relatively, nearly as important as composition. Its teaching should be, as far as possible, simplified, and too elaborate detail should be avoided. The greater number of successful teachers are relying upon the essential elements of sentence construction. Writing varies from a little above moderate to very good. Schools showing care, self-restraint, and uniformity in written work, are usually thriving in other respects. In no case did I find legibility and speed sacrificed to superfine penmanship, although, in some cases, legibility, speed, and good penmanship were alike wanting. In teaching Arithmetic a few teachers are not making the children in the lower grades sufficiently selfreliant. After a considerable use of objects for counting, the skilful teacher will demand, in the temporary absence of the objects, the results previously attained. The objects will be wanted again directly for further experience, but the objects must be occasionally withheld. In the Second and Third Classes teachers are often disappointed because the pupils cannot show, in writing, the working out of a calculation readily made without the aid of the pencil. A considerable amount of care and practice is necessary to secure the conventional representation of the mental operation, and patience and unremitting assiduity are required on the part of the teacher. When he has secured that the child can show in a written form all the operations it can perform mentally, there will be little difficulty in obtaining further progress. In the more advanced classes the child should be exercised in obtaining satisfactory solutions to the same problem in various ways. The solutions should be discussed so that the child is convinced of the reality of his results. Where opportunity can be made, there should be a closer relation between the mensuration of surfaces and solids, and the facile use of the straight edge, the compasses, and the set squares. Nature Study is successful only where it is made a matter of dealing directly and intimately with the object studied. A "Nature Study Lesson" taken from a book requires at least the material described in the book. This is often overlooked, and the lesson is practically without value. A teacher will do well to read suitable manuals, and, having read them, to put them away and start some direct endeavour of his own. Many collections of more or less value are found in this district. Those best displayed and most effectively used are at Cairns and Herberton. The fine collection of mineral specimens at Irvinebank is being again brought into use. Among the collections in smaller schools, the Watsonville collection stands first. The best work in insect life is being carried on at the small school at Ayton, on the Bloomfield River. There the children are able to describe the specimens, and give details of the habits of a large number of insects they have collected, and which the teacher has carefully and skilfully mounted and preserved.

Geography has in some cases been well taught, and a human and personal interest imparted to the places described. There is, however, too often a burden of detail being carried as far as the end of the half-year, when it is dumped to make room for a somewhat similar load for the next period. Good teaching will provide that the geographical knowledge obtained at one period is preparatory for the understanding of future material, so that the work of the present confirms and strengthens the work of the past, and all grows into an organic whole. Careful selection, clear description, continuous comparison, will succeed where other methods fail. In History not much has been attained. Short biographical sketches of heroic or philanthropic persons, and graphic stories of striking events, have proved more satisfactory than schemes approximating to the annals of a period. Drawing is well taught in a few schools, but where a teacher who has had no training in drawing attempts to teach the subject the outcome is usually but wasted time. In the State school at Herberton drawing is carefully and systematically taught in all classes, and is turned to good account by correlation with other subjects. Music is carefully taught in the larger State schools, and though the schedule work is not overtaken, the singing is pleasing and the work beneficial. The Mulgrave State School shows, at present, the most promising work. Each member of the staff of that school takes part in the teaching of music under the guidance of the head teacher.

In the cooler months of the year good progress is made in drill and physical exercise, and great precision is obtained in some schools. Needlework is generally satisfactory, both in the State schools and in those Provisional schools which are under the direction of a female teacher. Here and there one comes across samplers that have been too long in hand, and are stale to the children and to all concerned.

There is also, very frequently, a want of a scheme of garments suitable to the circumstances of the school. In larger schools sewing machines are in use, and it is greatly to a girl's advantage to be taught at school how to combine the work of a machine with her hand-sewing, so as to produce a garment that shall be as well made and as perfectly finished as a garment wholly hand-made.

RECORDS.

Except in one case, the school records have been carefully and faithfully kept. Teachers in a few schools, however, overlook the strict injunctions contained in Regulation 116, and in General Instructions 45, 64, 88, and 107, all of which direct promptness in the making of entries in records and returns.

SPECIAL OBSERVATIONS.

The classified State schools most satisfactory in their general condition during the year are (in alphabetical order) Atherton, Cairns, Croydon, Georgetown, Golden Gate, Herberton, Kuranda, and Watsonville. Among the unclassified State schools and Provisional schools the best are Camooweal, Gurrumba, Glenrock, Goode Island, Kingsborough, Lucinda Point, Macknade, Nigger Creek, Table Top, and Urandangie. A few schools, among which Halifax stands first, have school gardens which, in many ways, are valuable in the training of children. Other schools have, on the verandas, collections of pot plants, which serve in a large degree the same purpose. The collections at Herberton and Golden Gate are the best. Halifax, Herberton, and Golden Gate have been recommended for prizes, and the length of the list of schools that are making some progress in this direction is encouraging.

I have, &c.,

WM. TAYLOR, District Inspector.

The Under Secretary, Department of Public Instruction, Brisbane.

Appendix C.

REPORT OF THE INSPECTOR OF TECHNICAL COLLEGES FOR THE

YEAR 1907.

Department of Public Instruction,

Brisbane, 15th April, 1908.

SIR,-I have the honour to submit following, a report upon the working of the Technical Colleges in the State, for the year 1907.

COLLEGES.

During the year 1907, Technical Colleges were in operation at nineteen centres-viz., Bowen, Brisbane North, Brisbane South, Brisbane (West End), Bundaberg, Cairns, Charters Towers, Croydon, Gympie, Herberton, Ipswich, Mackay, Maryborough, Mount Morgan, Rockhampton, Sandgate, Toowoomba, Townsville, and Warwick.

With the exception of that at Herberton, all were in existence from the beginning of the year. The establishment of the Herberton Technical College was approved in July, 1907. The population of that town is small; but, in view of the mineral richness of the district and the keen interest of the people, it was thought not inadvisable that a college should be established there.

While nothing has transpired relating to the Herberton College to call into question the wisdom of its establishment, yet it is debatable whether a limit of population is not a necessity for the permanent success of any college. A college, when established, should be open permanently. There should be apparent a sure prospect of continued and growing prosperity.

During 1906 a college was opened in Croydon. Public interest in it and appreciation of its possibilities augured happily for its future. But, twelve months ago, in commenting upon its inception, I spoke of the disabilities likely to attend Croydon by reason of the smallness of its population, the consequent dearth of teaching ability, and the small probability of the departure of a teacher from the town being compensated for by the arrival in the town of someone ready to take up his relinquished

work of instruction.

During the year what was feared has been realised, and there is little chance of Croydon rising superior to the troubles that now beset it. Its population is decreasing, its teachers are leaving, and new arrivals in Croydon are few. Should a possible teacher arrive in Croydon, there is little to induce him to sacrifice his time in the prosecution of the college work.

Bowen, too, suffers from a similar disability. With not more than 2,500 inhabitants within a radius of 10 miles, it is not a matter for surprise that available teachers are few. Naturally, too, the possible students are similarly small in number; hence, as in the case of Croydon, the prospect of becoming the teacher of a technical college class is not alluring, even were men, able and willing to undertake the required classes, always to be found in a town of such small population.

There doubtless will be notable exceptions, but the experiences of Bowen and of Croydon certainly suggest that a population limit exists, below which it is unwise to establish a technical college.

The failure to maintain classes, after being once established, is fraught with more harmful consequences than the mere loss of the classes to the people. In such cases, ideas of technical education and failure remain long associated in the minds of the people. The confidence of the people in the possibilities of their own district is not easily restored.

Change of opinion is generally slow; but, during the past two years, the opinion has gained support that an institution with the definite aims of a technical college, and with its natural right to a definite place in the scheme of things, is best located in its own building, free to pursue its own work in an atmosphere of its own creation.

New premises, devoted to technical college purposes only, are to be erected at Mount Morgan and Mackay.

It is expected that the Mount Morgan College building will be completed in a few months, and that the erection of the new Mackay College will shortly be begun.

During the coming year a move may be expected towards building in several other centres. Inquiries that have been made by colleges in the past year concerning building sites suggest appreciation of the necessity for changes in accommodation.

In every town in which the college committee has decided to secure a site and erect a special college building, the funds requisite for the erection of the building have been obtained with comparative ease. In most cases, the selection of an available site has been attended with much trouble and difficulty. It is natural that this should be so. When the inhabitants of any town consider that circumstances demand a separate college building, their population is in most cases fairly large, the town is compact, and practically all the centrally-situated blocks have been alienated or reserved for other purposes. It is most desirable that a technical college should be centrally situated; but, when the need for the separate college building becomes pressing, the cost of a suitable central site is possibly prohibitively high.

During my tour of inspection in 1907, I obtained particulars of the most suitable sites in several of the towns. The results generally were not promising.

It is necessary that building sites for future technical colleges should be reserved earlier in the history of townships.

When the various technical college committees sincerely consider that the time is ripe for such changes, I anticipate that public support will not be lacking. Many circumstances show that, for the purposes of technical education, practical public sympathy is readily aroused. During the past eighteen months five colleges have made public appeals, within their respective districts, for monetary aid. In each case help has been readily forthcoming. I confidently expect the opinion in favour of separate college buildings to extend during the next few years among the supporters of provincial colleges.

Concerning the metropolitan colleges, a means is now existent whereby a logical forward step may be taken. The wisdom of the centralisation of the important and expensive classes scarcely needs demonstration or comment. Good work has been done in the past by these colleges. The change is to be brought about only because such a change constitutes the next natural step.

Branch classes have been in operation during the year at Longreach, Barcaldine, Childers, Gin Gin, Howard, Pialba, Tiaro, Clifton, Allora, Yangan, and Killarney. Each of these branches has been under the management of the committee of a technical college, and in most instances the head teacher of the State school of the locality in which the branch class is established has voluntarily undertaken the supervision of the branch.

These branch classes have done good work, principally in introducing a means of further education to districts otherwise uncatered for. The scope of the work attempted is very restricted, the majority of the branch classes being classes in domestic subjects only. It is hoped that, as the utility of these branches becomes appreciated, the colleges concerned will make an attempt to increase their usefulness by an extension of the work undertaken, preferably in the direction of the industries of the branch classes' districts.

INSTRUCTION.

The following table gives, in summarised form, the number of subjects taught during the year 1907 by each college in each department of the syllabus:

The aggregate number of subjects taught during the past year is an increase of 13.2 per centum upon the number taught during 1906. This is satisfactory. The majority of the colleges are fairly widely represented in the different recognised branches of instruction.

Two colleges attempt the teaching of one or more subjects' in each of the departinents; one college is represented in twelve departments, one in nine departments, one in eight, one in seven, four in six, three in five, two in four, three in two, and one college in one department.

From these brief statements of fact one can judge of the variety of requirements which each college is striving to meet. But to draw safe conclusions from the above table, one should have some knowledge of the arrangement of subjects and the constitution of the departments in the syllabus of instruction in technical colleges. It cannot be inferred, for example, that a college which is giving instruction in seven subjects of the art department, and in five subjects of the department of mechanical engineering, is giving prominence in its curriculum to art subjects, or that in that college mechanical engineering is subordinated to art. One needs to know the conformation of each department. That is not the only requirement. One should have definite opinion of the proper function of a college.

The purpose of a college is first vocational. A college is to be judged by the extent to which it prepares students for the efficient practice of certain trades or professions, not by the number and variety of the subjects, teachers for which it can provide, and students of which it can attract.

Of course, detached subjects will always find a place in the curriculum of a college. They are wanted by certain classes, and they will always be wanted. But they are most easily provided for, and, no matter how extensive the list of such detached subjects may be, those subjects are an inefficient substitute for one good, complete course. Technical colleges must have an objective. At the end of any year the management of a college should be able to reflect that their provision of training for this or that vocation is better than at the beginning of the year. Technical colleges should look not to the general development but to the specific development of a student's ability as their function.

In the cases of a large number of children who leave school to enter employment, the first few years are practically waste years, so far as the productive value of the child is concerned, and so far as increasing his industrial and productive efficiency is concerned. The employments upon which the majority enter demand so little skill that they are not educative in any sense. Not equipped to fill a particular place, it is not surprising that numbers drift from one position to another, vainly endeavouring to secure some permanent holding. To give these some practical training to a definite end, and, as far as possible, to meet the requirements of those who have definitely entered upon some vocation, technical colleges must strive to make their courses complete. The college that gives sound, complete instruction in, say, freehand and geometrical drawing, woodwork, trade drawing, building construction, mensuration, and quantity surveying, is in a far healthier condition than the college which has arrangements perfected for the giving of instruction in such wide but diverse subjects as drawing, painting, algebra, chemistry, and so on. The former cannot cater for the requirements of such varied tastes as can the latter. But the former could do much towards training for one particular object. The latter subjects are useful, but they do not comprise definite training towards any object.

Several of the colleges have shown during the past year that they do recognise the importance of doing at least one thing well. They are striving to make good their training for at least one end. The Gympie College has endeavoured to found classes bearing upon the mining industry. Maryborough has taken a definite stop towards securing a teacher of subjects bearing upon engineering theory. Bundaberg has again moved to secure agricultural chemistry classes. Rockhampton has opened a course in chemistry leading up to assaying. Charters Towers has added to its curriculum a course in electrical engineering. Ipswich has made progress towards the acquisition of a well-equipped electrical engineering laboratory.

These are gratifying proofs that the colleges are gaining an enlivened conception of their function. They show, too, that the colleges are desirous of acting in accordance therewith. Their efforts have not all been successful, and will not be in all cases; but the attitude towards the work, as shown by the above, and by the efforts of several colleges to acquire sites and buildings, will be found gradually affecting the whole of the college work.

The subjects taught, the teachers chosen, and the teaching equipment possessed, are the three important matters.

Of late committees have shown a disposition to be more exacting in their choice of teachers. This is as it should be. When calling for applications to fill vacancies, particulars as to teaching experience should be required of the candidate. A teacher with required experience cannot always be obtained, but a high standard demanded will not be without effect upon the teaching generally.

STUDENTS.

During 1906, the number of different individuals who enrolled in the colleges was 4,321; the average number of enrolments per term was 2,501, while the number who enrolled as students for the period of the whole year was 918.

As is shown in the following table, the corresponding numbers for the year 1907 were 4,702, 3,303 5, and 1,076.

326 121 74 2,236 2,466 4,702 1,811 65 1,491 85 3,303 50 2,557 07 691 385 1,076 220

596 816

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432 13

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52

52

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24

35

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78

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62

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The

The number of different individuals enrolling in the college increased by 8'8 per centum. percentage increase in the average enrolment per term is 321. This percentage is higher than the increase per cent. in the number of individuals; hence, the average length of the period of a student's attendance at a college must be increasing; therefore, comparatively fewer students are attending for one term only--that is, fewer students are imagining that a technical education can be acquired in one term's attendance at a college. In the number of students who attended throughout the year there is cause for congratulation. This number shows an increase of 17 2 per cent. upon the figures for 1906.