APRIL 20. THE NEW ZEALAND GAZETTE. 1095

more extended experiments—e.g., as to the effects of various modes
of cultivation and of various kinds of common manures upon the soils
found in the district, one row or ridge being devoted to each experiment.
The courses for cottage gardening and for elementary agriculture for
classes under the Manual and Technical Instruction Act will serve as
guides for what is intended in this respect.

HEALTH.

57. Lessons on the structure of the body and on health should be
    given in classes S3 to S6.
    These should include such subjects as the following, treated in a very
    simple manner: The chief bones of the skeleton, and the way in which
    they form a framework for the body; tendons and muscles; the skin;
    the heart, the blood, and the general system of circulation; food and
    drink, digestion, the stomach and intestines; the lungs; the liver; the
    kidneys; the nerves; the brain; the eye; the sense of touch; the outer
    ear; the throat and nose. Air, ventilation and respiration; water, wash-
    ing, and cleaning; the choice of clothing, food and drinks; the manage-
    ment of health; exercise; the avoidance of evil and unhealthy habits;
    infectious diseases; vaccination; methods of dealing with common ail-
    ments, colds, and common accidents.
    The lessons on the structure of the body are intended not as a course
    in physiology, but solely to serve the practical purpose of an introduction
    to such a knowledge of the laws of health as every individual of the com-
    munity ought to possess: e.g., the study of the eye need not include a
    knowledge of all its parts, if it be known to act as a lens through which
    the rays of light pass and, forming an image on the retina, convey a
    visual impression to the brain. (The care of the eye should receive some
    notice.)
    The instruction may be given partly in the nature-study or science
    lessons, and partly in special oral lessons, or in lessons contained in the
    reading-books of the higher standards. If this be done, it will not be
    necessary to allot a separate place for the subject on the time-table.
    Very simple preliminary work of the same kind may be done, at the
    discretion of the teacher, in the lower classes.

HANDWORK.

58. “Handwork” in these regulations means any subject prescribed
    for “School Classes” under the Manual and Technical Instruction Acts.
    The Inspector shall approve of the suitability of the course of hand-
    work adopted, having regard to the needs of the particular school and to
    the value of such course of handwork as part of the general curriculum of
    the school.

GENERAL.

59. It is to be considered as important that the programme of instruc-
    tion in any school shall be drawn up with a due regard to the principle
    of co-ordination, so that the various portions of the work shall be regarded
    not so much as separate subjects, but as parts of a whole linked together
    firmly by immediate reference to the facts and needs of the children’s
    daily life.
    Accordingly, the requirements of the syllabus are not to be interpreted
    too rigidly, but for the several classes in various kinds of schools are to be
    adapted to the children in those classes, to the circumstances of the
    district, to the staff of the school, &c. In the lower classes of all schools
    the drawing would be combined with the handwork, if the latter were
    taken; geography, if taken, would form part of the course of nature-study.
    In the upper classes one course of lessons might meet the more definite of
    the requirements for geography A, nature-study, health, and elementary
    science, and this course might even be connected with a handwork course,
    such as cottage-gardening. Geographical and historical readers taken in
    alternate years in Standards III. and IV., grouped together where neces-
    sary, and in Standards V. and VI., grouped together where necessary,
    might give a convenient way of treating the lessons in geography B,
    history and civic instruction; and so on.
60. The course of instruction in any school may, if the Board of Educa-
    tion think fit, be modified in accordance with clause 28 and following
    clauses forthwith, or at any time not later than the 1st day of January,
    1905, on which date these regulations shall, without any exception, come
    into force; in all other respects they shall come into force from the date
    of publication.

J. F. ANDREWS,
Acting Clerk of the Executive Council.

By Authority: JOHN MACKAY, Government Printer, Wellington.
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