Jan. 21.] THE NEW ZEALAND GAZETTE. 287

in no standard is freehand drawing to be taught altogether from the set copies in the books referred to; indeed, the latter are to be regarded rather as supplying material for the teacher than copies for the pupils. As much as possible of the drawing from diagrams is to be done from examples drawn by the teacher on the blackboard or from wall diagrams.

The course in freehand for each standard is to include some instruction suited to the capacity of the pupils in elementary design; simple known geometrical, natural, or conventional forms are to be utilised as elements for the drawing of simple patterns and borders, and of simple decorative arrangements. The designs are to be inventive as well as imitative, and should show that the pupils have some knowledge of the fundamental principles of design, such as repetition, alternation, balance, radiation, &c. Drawing from memory is to be practised in all standards. 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 should also be required to draw from single examples or from groups (of not more than two elements) of the solids that are prescribed for the geometrical drawing of the Fifth and Sixth Standards, and of simple objects based thereon. The models are to be arranged in the simplest positions in front of and below the level of the pupils’ eyes.

Drawing by the Aid of Instruments.

46. 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