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worse, disgusting the child with his book
the exercises which give no occupation to the
mind.

Let the children SLATE WRITING,
as soon as possible; and then amuse and
employ themselves in copying the letters and
words of the lesson they have just been re-
peating, or the large sheet of "Script Hand"
of the National Society. In the 2nd Divi-
sion, Bithell's, "Spelling by Dictation" is
found very useful: in the 3rd, Sullivan's
"Spelling Book Superseded" forms an ex-
cellent text book; and lastly, comes the
practice of writing out a portion of the les-
son, or an abstract of the whole, from recol-
lection; a most valuable exercise in many
ways.

WRITING.—Considering the natural liking
which children have for employing them-
selves with pencils and paper, pen and ink,
or slates, it seems strange there should be
so little good writing. It is too often taught
by setting copies merely, with a little praise
or blame at the end of the task. The master
cannot teach effectively or collectively unless
the children face him, he can then see their
postures and the motion of the hands and
fingers.

I prefer Mulhaüsers system, as improved
by MacLeod; but Foster's, Swan's, Darnell's,
and other Copy Books are used, and are all
good, provided the master knows how to use
them. Many children in the Nelson Infant
School write very well at five years of age,
and there is no reason why writing should
not be taught as early as reading. I have
endeavoured to introduce ELEMENTARY DRAW-
ING into our Schools, but few of the masters
having any previous acquaintance with it,
the practice seems more difficult than it is,
and has not become general. I have used
"Richson's Elementary Free Hand" for this
purpose; also, "Lineal Drawing Copies"
(white on black ground), the "Set of Out-
lines" recommended by the Art Department,
and the "Grammar of Form."

ARITHMETIC.—I lay much stress upon
Mental Arithmetic, not indeed upon the
system of rules so called, but upon teaching
children to answer questions in addition, sub-
traction, and division, as readily as they do
those in the multiplication table. Beginning
with the addition of two numbers together,
subtraction follows as a matter of course,
for if 9 and 7 make 16, then take 9 from 16
and 7 remain. Another useful exercise in
class is to add up to 50 or 100, taking care to
start from an odd number when the even
numbers are added, and the reverse, and
then coming back again by substraction.
Thus taking 8 as the number to be worked
at, the master will say 3 and 8 are—what?
The answer being given, he then says—and
8 are—? and so on. So in hearing the mul-
tiplication table, if 7 x 9 = 63, the next
question is how many sevens in 63? how many
nines? next, what part of 63 is 9? the answer
being one-seventh part, the next question is
what number is two-sevenths of 63, three-
sevenths, &c.?

When this plan is systematically followed
up, there is but little trouble with slate
arithmetic. The work generally used here
is Colenso's Elementary Arithmetic for the
master's use, and the Examples, bound up in
parts, for the scholars. The Irish Arithmetic
is preferred by some, on account of the Key,
where the sums are worked out. Tate's
"Principles of Arithmetic" is a book
singularly clear in its explanations, although
if the arithmetical sheet lessons of the Irish
Board are carefully gone through, little else
is required. The great use of Colenso's Ex-
amples is, that, in addition to the usual sums,
they contain a set of questions which require
the scholar to think before he begins to
answer them. The numerous failures which
I reported last year in answering the simple
question—In 618 potatoes, if one-third be
rotten, how many are good? showed suffici-
ently how far arithmetic still was from being
"an exercise of the mind, and not merely an
application of rules got by heart."

GEOGRAPHY.—Our schools are generally
well supplied with maps, and will shortly be
so with globes, which serve to correct the
false impressions as to relative size produced
by maps. Betts' Educational and Interro-
gatory Maps are found very useful, and are
quite large enough for most of our schools.
The class, after learning its lesson with the
map before it, is tested by another exactly
the same, except that numbers are substituted
for names. For a collective lesson Hartley's
"Outlines of Geography" is an excellent text
book, both for arrangement and careful selec-
tion and condensation; for learning by heart,
Groombridge's "Catechism of Geography" is
very well adapted; Cornwell's "Geography
for Beginners," and Hughes', in Gleig's
"Series," come in later; and Sullivan's
"Geography Generalzed" meets all other
requirements. The Geographical lesson is
generally a favorite one; and I have lately
seen some very creditable attempts at draw-
ing maps. In Nelson Town School John-
ston's "Physical Map" has long been in use,
and been found very full of interest—but in
general "Physical Geography" has not been