Dec. 16.

THE NEW ZEALAND GAZETTE.

NEEDLEWORK.

38. Needlework should be so taught as to secure a practical knowledge
    of sewing, cutting-out, and making ordinary garments, together with
    mending and darning. Exercises on small pieces of material should be used
    only for learning different kinds of stitches. At all stages the periodical
    construction and completion of some useful article by the scholars should
    be aimed at. At the same time the educational value of needlework as
    a form of hand-and-eye training must be kept in view, as well as its
    practical value.

Special care should be taken to avoid all conditions unfavourable to
eyesight. In no case should materials and stitches be so fine as to strain
the children's eyesight. Children of weak eyesight should not be given
any exercise that would be injurious to their eyes, and in serious cases
they should not be expected to do sewing at all.

Throughout the classes pupils should be taught to measure the quantities
of material required for garments: they should learn the price per yard,
and calculate the cost of each article made. In the upper classes the
instruction should be amplified by lessons given in the selection of materials,
in which it should be pointed out that the lowest-priced material, if it
would fade or shrink, or not allow of "turning," would not be the most
economical. By this means habits of thrift may be acquired.

"Cutting out" should be done on some principle of proportion. It is
not necessary to devote time to making elaborate patterns. What is re-
quired is a method which imparts correct proportion, and which tends
therefore to be practical, though it must not be merely mechanical.

Fancy-work of various kinds is not required, but girls who show
proficiency in plain sewing, and have finished their garments for the year,
may be allowed to do smocking or to ornament their work in other ways
with feather-stitching, braiding, or other simple forms of decorative needle-
work. Their aesthetic taste may thus be cultivated, and the needlework
correlated to some extent with art-work.

In general, it is to be constantly borne in mind that no opportunity
should be lost of correlating sewing with other subjects of the school course;
that the sewing lessons should be such as to establish closer relations
between the home and the school, the articles selected for making being
such as have some relation to the child's need at home or at school; that
the article should be simple and not such as to demand too long an
application of the children's attention, and that in all cases the necessary
cutting and fixing, to secure a proper educational result, must be done by
the children themselves, and not by others for them.

PHYSICAL TRAINING.

39. This should include organized games involving free movement,
    breathing-exercises and other physical exercises, as prescribed in the regula-
    tions for physical training.

At all times the teacher should see that the children breathe correctly
and adopt natural and correct postures, and that the physical condition
of the class-rooms and playgrounds is such as to encourage healthy bodily
development. When the weather-conditions and other circumstances are
favourable, many of the class-lessons may be taken in the open air; the
windows of the class-rooms should be wide open whenever this is possible;
full ventilation should be secured at all times, and at every interval
the air of the rooms should be fully flushed.

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