Oct. 6.] THE NEW ZEALAND GAZETTE. 2515

incidentally as occasion arises, and various subjects of the syllabus
should lend their aid. Some of the best subjects for composition
exercises may be led up to by questions based on the children’s own
observation in their ordinary life, or in their rambles about the
district; the information given in many of the reading lessons may
be tested, confirmed, supplemented, and reinforced by nature-study;
drawing and modelling may provide the means of similar training,
and thereby gain an added interest. Even the handwork will give
material aid, while in the case of elementary practical agriculture
the habits of careful observation, which are the chief aim and object
of nature-study, supply the only sound foundation. Whatever
be included, therefore, in any definite course of lessons under the
designation of nature-study, it will be well for the teacher, when
drawing up programmes of work in the several subjects of the sylla-
bus, to have in mind some general scheme for the cultivation of
observing habits and the awakening of special interest in the natural
objects of the children’s surroundings, and the various parts of the
instruction should be so arranged as to pursue this scheme con-
sistently and continuously throughout the whole school course.

The lessons given in the lower classes should be marked by two
main characteristics. In the first place, they should be really lessons
on objects, or on natural phenomena—that is, they should treat
of things that each child in the class can see with his own eyes and
can handle with his own hands; secondly, they should not be dis-
connected, but should form a course of lessons co-ordinated with one
another, and, as far as possible, with the other subjects of instruc-
tion.

Throughout the classes a similar cardinal principle of direct
observation, where direct observation is applicable, must prove the
teacher’s guide, and the more systematic the scheme and the closer
the connection maintained between the various parts of the instruc-
tion in furtherance of the pursuit of nature-study the nearer will
the approach made by the teacher be to the objects in view.

In addition to, and in close association with, features more com-
monly grouped under the title of geography, the following may be
regarded as especially suitable subjects of observation:—

(1.) Animal and plant life within the immediate purview of the
children; pets and domestic animals, wild animals and
game, insects, reptiles, fish, common wild flowers, chief
trees, &c.

(2.) Minerals in the immediate neighbourhood, stones, pebbles,
rocks, &c.

(3.) Weather study (in higher standards); daily observations
of the weather, temperature, winds, clouds, time of
sunrise and sunset, rainfall, &c.

(4.) Generally the features of the immediate neighbourhood in
increasing detail.

Within the limits of observation and experiment, and the in-
ferences therefrom, nature-study, as the direct study of realities,
finds, as already stated, its proper sphere, and in every scheme the
study of natural objects and natural phenomena must occupy the
foremost place. But outside the limits so determined exists a wide
field of kindred and profitable interest to which it is desirable that
attention should be directed as soon as the minds of the pupils are
prepared to appreciate the relation of their own immediate environ-
ment to the wider environment of the country in which they live and
of the surrounding world. Interesting topics of New Zealand life
and industry, scenic beauties, centres of population and means
of communication, the special physical features and common natural
products of different localities, the nature of the trade with the outer
world, and some very general introduction to the peoples and con-
ditions of life in the outer world itself are matters of education with
which it is essential that some acquaintance should be secured.
These are also topics of nature-study, but in a different sense, and
with characteristic differences in the methods employed. In this
connection direct observation is no longer, to more than a very
limited extent, applicable, and recourse must be had instead to the
various adventitious aids of the teacher’s resources.

Conversational lessons, maps, pictures, diagrams, newspaper
extracts, and illustrative reading lessons will all contribute—in
particular will reliance be placed on suitable reading matter drawn
from various sources, including extracts from the School Journal,
the general object being not so much to furnish the minds of the
children with a body of facts to be remembered as to stimulate