1074
THE NEW ZEALAND GAZETTE.
[No. 32

ice; temperature of melting ice; volume and density of ice; fracture of rocks; easy to make two surfaces of ice freeze together, &c.; snow; glaciers; the work of ice in shaping the surface of the land; icebergs. Formation of deltas and alluvial plains, e.g., the Canterbury Plains. Winds, more fully than in Standard V. Radiation; specific heat of water and air; the principal causes of the differences of climates; continental climates; island climates. Rise and fall of the land surface; earthquakes; volcanoes.

(b.) The following portions of mathematical and physical geography should be taken in a connected logical order, but the lessons may be spread over the two years of Standards V. and VI. in some such way as is indicated in paragraphs (1) to (16) below. The instruction may be founded in every case directly upon observation and experiment, inferences from which may be explained by means of globes and other models, and by diagrams. Should teachers from any cause, however, find themselves unable to base their teaching directly upon the observation of the stars and other phenomena, simple models may be used and diagrams drawn therefrom; in no case can the teaching of mathematical geography be regarded as satisfactory, if it is taught from books and diagrams alone.

(1.) Daily rotation of the earth, as suggested in the syllabus for Standard IV. The children should be convinced of this from their own observation of stars in the northern and southern skies.

(2.) Meridians; longitude, known as an angle and an arc; cause of the differences of local time; method of finding longitude at sea (optional).

(3.) Approximately stable position of the earth’s axis, which may be inferred from the apparently fixed position of a certain point in the southern sky (the South Pole).

(4.) Annual revolution of the earth round the sun, which may be argued from the varying position of stars in the northern sky, or of the Southern Cross, from month to month.

(5.) Approximately spherical form of the earth: the common proofs may be used, as—by inference from what is seen when ships go away from the land; the circular form of the offing or horizon; the shape of the earth’s shadow on the moon; the circumnavigation of the world; the round form assumed by a plastic body that is made to rotate rapidly; or (optional) even from the meridian altitude of the sun or a star at two places, one north of the other, on the same day (to do this it would be necessary for two schools to exchange observations).

(6.) Latitude, known as an angle and an arc; the value of a degree of latitude, roughly nearly seventy miles everywhere; the distance from the school to the equator, the distance from either pole to the equator; the circumference of the earth, its diameter; the length of New Zealand and of the continents from north to south; the distance of a few well-known places (London, New York, Calcutta, Cape Town, Sydney, &c.) from the equator; and (optional) method of finding latitude from the altitude of the sun at noon may also be explained to Standard VI. All these may be calculated; it is not intended that they should be committed to memory.

(7.) The altitude of the sun at the equinoxes or at the solstices: hence, in conjunction with (4), we infer—

(8.) The inclination of the earth’s axis to the plane of its orbit.

(9.) The length of the day at different times of the year—from observation, from the times of sunrise and sunset given in an almanac, from experiments with a globe; length of day and night at the poles.

(10.) The calorific effect of vertical and oblique rays from the sun falling upon the surface of the earth.

(11.) The seasons, inferred from (4), (8), (9), and (10).

(12.) The antarctic and arctic circles; the tropics; the five zones.

(13.) The mean temperature at different times of the year. It is recommended that the temperature in the shade should be regularly recorded each day, say at 9 a.m., noon, and 3 p.m. (or 5 p.m. if possible), and also the temperature in the sun at noon, and that the mean temperature for each week and each month should be found.

(14.) Vegetable life at different times of the year and in the different zones of the earth (from pictures, &c.).

(15.) Seasonal winds; trade winds; monsoons.