Jan. 21.] THE NEW ZEALAND GAZETTE. 283

of the daily rotation of the earth. There should be no attempt to hurry
the process; there should be observations taken by the children them-
selves during the winter months, and the conclusion should be for-
mulated when their minds are ready for it.

If an eclipse of the moon visible in New Zealand occurs, the oppor-
tunity should not be missed of showing the children, by lessons before-
hand upon shadows, and lessons afterwards upon what was seen during
the eclipse, what is really for children probably the best proof of the
earth’s rotundity.

Standard V.

(a.) The scale of the wall-map of New Zealand used in the school
compared with the scale of the map of the district; the scale of the
map of New Zealand in an atlas or geographical reader. A few dis-
tances may be computed from the map of New Zealand, and also,
roughly, the areas of the North and South Islands, and of the whole
colony. Either in this standard or in Standard VI. the process may be
extended so as to give clear ideas as to the distance of New Zealand from
Australia, Fiji, &c.; the extent and area of Australia, &c. First ideas
(to be further extended in Standard VI.) about glaciers and the work of
ice; the sea and its work; tides; winds and currents; coasts, rocky and
otherwise; capes. General distribution of land and water on the sur-
face of the globe; the land hemisphere; the water hemisphere. The
mountain and river systems, in outline, of some one continent.

(b.) Mathematical geography: See Standard VI. (b), Mathematical
geography.

Standard VI.

(a.) The scale of maps generally, illustrated by some one or two maps,
as of England, Australia, India; distances and areas computed there-
from; a few distances measured on the globe. Ice; experiments with
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 sur-
face; 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 experi-
ment, 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 dis-