Oct. 14.] THE NEW ZEALAND GAZETTE. 1125

really good readers to ascertain whether they understand what they are reading, except perhaps with regard to the meaning of an obscure word here and there; the good reading is sufficient proof of the intelligence of the reader. It must, however, be remembered that a child’s understanding of a passage may be good as far as it goes, and may yet be naturally limited by the inexperience natural to his years, so that his reading will not give full expression to the utterance of sentiments of passionate desire, disappointed ambition, or overwhelming grief, although it may indicate an elementary appreciation of them.

In SPELLING, the intelligence of the child should be directed, in the first place, to the recognition of the phonetic values of the letters, and for that reason words of peculiar formation should not be used as tests for the first standard. When the phonetic values have been well established in his mind the pupil is capable of intelligent observation of anomalous forms; at a further stage he can appreciate the reasons for different ways of adding inflectional and other terminations; and still later he may come to see how the derivation of words affects their orthography.

WRITING and DRAWING are not to be regarded as merely mechanical and imitative arts. The pupil should from the first be taught to observe the constituent parts of the letters he has to write, the method of joining the several parts of a letter and the several letters of a word, the slope of his copy, and the due spacing of the whole; so that he may have not a vague and general idea but a clear and precise conception of what he is expected to reproduce. In this exercise, as well as in drawing, the training is partly for the eye and partly for the hand; but it ought also to do something for the brain which keeps them in relation. The earliest drawing-lessons will be found to require more intelligence than most young children are at first disposed to bestow upon them. The teacher soon discovers that they have very indefinite ideas of a straight line, of a square, of a circle. They may know that a square has four sides, but their intelligence has to be aroused to observe and recognise the equality of the sides and the sensible character of a right angle; they may know that a circle has no corners, but the perfect symmetry will escape their unaided notice. One great advantage of drawing is that it develops the sense of proportion; operating perhaps more immediately through the eye in the case of free-hand drawing, and in the case of geometrical drawing and perspective operating more immediately through the understanding. This sense of proportion is what is most required for the appreciation of arithmetical and physical problems, and it has unlimited applications to the concerns of daily life—even to dressmaking and cooking. Upon many of the practical arts drawing has a still more direct bearing, and to the skilled artisan of the future a knowledge of it will be indispensable.

In these regulations more prominence is given to English COMPOSITION than to English GRAMMAR. It is not possible to define separate stages of progress in composition as clearly as in grammar; it is therefore necessary to leave a great deal to the discretion of the Inspector. The Inspector will ascertain from the teacher what plan is followed in the teaching of composition, and will as far as practicable adapt his examination to that plan; but where he finds the system of instruction unsatisfactory and ineffective he will indicate its defects and suggest improvements, and he will do his utmost to prevent any continuous and persistent neglect of the subject. In setting an exercise in composition the Inspector will be careful to choose a subject of which it is certain that the children have considerable knowledge; or he will read a passage, or recite a narrative, or in some other way supply them with suitable material for composition. The teacher should habitually correct defects of composition as they occur in the ordinary speech of the pupils, and in their written exercises. Correct speech and good composition depend more on practice and habit than on a knowledge of rules of grammar and composition. The principal use of grammar is not to teach the art of speaking and writing correctly; that art is acquired by familiarity with good models, and by practice subject to criticism and correction; and, with respect to the acquisition of the art, the function of grammar is the subordinate function of criticism. The great value of grammar depends on its character as a science of elementary logic, as a study of the forms in which the processes of thought stand revealed. In this aspect it plays a very important part in the development of intelligence, and is pregnant with suggestions that may guide the pupil into ways of philosophical thought when his school days are over. It is, moreover, a science of classification, and among the classificatory sciences it has this advantage: that there is no need to go far afield to find the objects of it; they are accessible always and to every one, being the thoughts of our own minds and the words of our own lips. In grammar and analysis the Inspector will employ, as tests or exercises, plain and