1134
THE NEW ZEALAND GAZETTE.
[No. 75

soils. Plant-food in the soil. Exhaustion of the soil. Principal of application of manures. Principle of rotation of crops. Improvement of the soil.

Standard VI.—(i.) Object of manuring. General and special manures. Farmyard manure, its composition and value; its liability to ferment; management to prevent loss of value. Vegetable and animal refuse as manures. Green manuring. Plant-food most frequently wanting in soils. Manures supplying particular kinds of plant-food. Guanos. Special manures supplying nitrogen. Bone manures. Superphosphate and other mineral manures. Action of lime on the soil.

(j.) The characteristics of the commoner crops—cereals, fodder-crops, root-crops. Habit of growth of a plant. Distribution of roots. Principle of adaptation of manures to crops.

(k.) Importance of good seed. Propagation of plants by cuttings, tubers, bulbs, &c. Objects of grafting and pruning. Insect pests. Insect changes, as illustrated by the life-history of common insects. Nature of parasitic fungi.

In schools in which it is not practicable to have the work of the three standards done separately: Part I. may be taken as the work of one year; Part II. may be taken as the work of another year, together with so much of Part I. as is necessary to render Part II. intelligible to beginners; and Part III., with the most necessary portions of Part I., as the work of a third year.

23. The object-lessons and lessons on natural history, manufactures, and common things, for Standards I., II., and III., are intended as an introduction to the elementary-science lessons for the higher standards. Classes S1 and S2, or S1, S2, and S3, may be taught and examined together in these subjects if the programme of lessons is varied from year to year, so that on the whole the work prescribed for two or three classes shall be done in two or three years, as the case may be; or S3 may be instructed in elementary science with any higher class, and even S1 and S2 may, instead of receiving lessons on objects, &c., be instructed in the elementary science prescribed for the higher standards if the instruction in elementary science is oral, illustrative, and experimental, and is, in the teacher’s judgment, adapted to the capacity of the lower classes and fitted to promote the development of their faculties.

24. Any order of instruction in singing other than that prescribed in the standards will be recognised as of equivalent value if the result be good singing, sufficient theoretical knowledge, and careful training of the lower classes as well as the higher.

25. All the girls in any public school in which there is a mistress or assistant mistress shall learn needlework, and the Inspector shall judge all other work done by the girls more leniently than that done by the boys in such a degree as would be implied in reducing by 10 per cent. the minimum marks required for any examination pass. To secure full approval the needlework of the several classes must be according to the following programme:—

S1. Threading needles and hemming. (Illustration of work: Strips of calico or a plain pocket-handkerchief.)

S2. The foregoing, and felling, and fixing a hem. (Illustration: A child’s pinafore.)

S3. The foregoing and stitching, sewing on strings, and fixing all work up to this stage. (A pillow-case, or woman’s plain shift, without bands or gathers.)

S4. The foregoing and button-holing, sewing on buttons, stroking, setting in gathers, plain darning and fixing. (A plain day- or night-shirt.)

S5. The foregoing, and whipping, a tuck run, sewing on frill, and gathering. (A night-dress with frills.)

S6. Cutting out any plain garment and fixing it for a junior class; darning stockings (fine and coarse) in worsted or cotton; grafting; darning fine linen or calico; patching the same; darning and patching fine diaper.

If knitting is learnt it shall be in the following order: A strip of plain knitting; knitted muffatees, ribbed; a plain-knitted child’s sock; a long-ribbed stocking.

26. In case of any misunderstanding arising as to the meaning of any part of these regulations the Minister of Education may declare what is to be taken as the meaning, and his interpretation shall be binding upon all persons to whom it is communicated, and shall, if declared by publication in the New Zealand Gazette, have equal force with these regulations.

27. Standard IV. as defined in these regulations shall be the standard of education prescribed under “The Education, Act, 1877,” section 90, subsection (4).

ROBERT LECKIE,
Acting Clerk of the Executive Council.

By Authority GEORGE DIDSBUKY, Government Printer, Wellington.