APRIL 20.] THE NEW ZEALAND GAZETTE. 1007

The pupils are to be required from time to time to reproduce from memory a simple freehand or geometrical exercise, a simple example of design, a representation of a simple model or of a common object that has formed the subject of a previous lesson.

The course in freehand for each standard is to include some practice in drawing from actual objects, the character of which shall be suited to the capacity of the pupils. In the first three standards the objects selected are to be such as have no appreciable thickness (e.g., a sheet of paper, a book, a slate, a map, representations in wood or cardboard of simple geometrical or ornamental forms) placed flat on the wall opposite the pupils. In the Fourth and Fifth Standards, in addition to more difficult objects of the kind described above, the objects selected are to include such articles as a saw, a screwdriver, a spade (placed flat on the wall), and simple leaves, fruits, or vegetables suitably placed with regard to the pupils. In the Sixth Standard, objects similar to but more difficult than the above are to be selected, such as shells, sprays of leaves, flowers, and other natural objects.

Pupils must also have a general knowledge of the following geometrical solids—the cube, the square prism, the square pyramid, the sphere, the cylinder, and the cone, and must for this purpose receive instruction in either (1) freehand drawing from single examples or from groups of not more than two elements of the solids named, and of simple objects based thereon, or (2) elementary solid geometry as prescribed for Standard VI.

For model-drawing the objects are to be arranged in the simplest positions in front of and below the level of the pupils’ eyes. It is suggested that where the equipment for the teaching of model-drawing is limited it might with advantage be supplemented by models in cardboard, &c., constructed where possible by the pupils, and by objects that approximate in shape to the solids named. It will be beneficial to pupils if the instruction in freehand drawing is correlated with instruction in drawing on the blackboard, brush drawing, and modelling in plasticine or clay.

Drawing by the Aid of Instruments.

45. In the first three standards, pupils are to be practised in the use of the flat ruler (with scale of inches), and of set-squares of 45° and 60°. The pupils will be required to know how to construct with the aid of these instruments the following rectilineal figures: the square, the rhombus, the oblong, the rhomboid, the triangle, and the trapezium (having two sides parallel), and the kite. They must be able to recognise, to describe, and to distinguish between these figures, and also the lines and the angles thereof, and to draw them from dictation, from written descriptions, or from memory. They must know, for example, that a triangle may have all, or two, or none of its sides of equal length, that an obtuse angle is greater than an acute angle, and that the diagonal of an oblong divides that figure into two equal triangles of similar shape. But geometrical terms are, in the first two standards, to be avoided as far as possible, and used but sparingly in the Third Standard. Cardboard models of the several figures should be freely used by the teacher for demonstration purposes, and by the pupils, who should at first be given frequent opportunities of handling, tracing round, and drawing from them. Adjustable skeleton models, in wood or cardboard, may with advantage be used for the purpose of comparing with one another the square, the rhombus, the oblong, the rhomboid, and the various triangles.

The pupils should be required to draw the various figures with sides of prescribed length, and in the Third Standard to make drawings to scale from large models of the figures, or from simple objects of similar form (e.g., maps, frames, exercise-books, &c.).

The instruction is also to include the drawing of simple patterns or borders based on combinations of straight lines: these exercises should be inventive as well as imitative.

In the Fourth Standard the pencil-compass and dividers will be added to the instruments already in use. Pupils should be required to construct geometrically the several rectilineal figures prescribed for the first three standards, and must for this purpose be familiarised with the following geometrical operations: the bisection of a straight line and of an angle; the erection of a perpendicular on a given straight line; the drawing of a straight line parallel to a given straight line; the making of an angle equal to a given angle; and the division of a straight line into any number of equal parts. They must also know how to make drawings to scale of objects from actual measurements or from dimensioned blackboard sketches; the objects selected must be of a simple character,