APRIL 20.] THE NEW ZEALAND GAZETTE. 1177

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.

Suggestions for a course of instruction will be found in the Appendix.

PHYSICAL TRAINING.

This should include organized games involving free movement, breathing-
exercises, and other physical exercises, as prescribed in the regulations 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.

APPENDIX.

SUGGESTIONS FOR COURSES IN VARIOUS SUBJECTS.

[The contents of this Appendix may from time to time be modified or
expanded, and other subjects may be included for the information and
guidance of teachers as the Minister of Education may direct.]

GEOGRAPHY.

JUNIOR DIVISION.

In all schools the nature-study lessons and observation-talks in the Junior
Division should include some topics bearing on geography. Where S2 has a
separate teacher the following list of topics will give an indication of the
kind of work that may be done at this stage; much of it may be done
where the Junior Division has only one teacher.

Elementary geographical notions are to be taught as far as possible
from actual observation—e.g., the nature of hills, plains, valleys, rivers;
also of lakes, bays and gulfs, straits, islands, peninsulas, if examples of
these are found in the neighbourhood of the school; the position of the
sun at noon and at other times of the day; the position and length of the
shadow cast, say, by a post in the playground at different times of the
day; the rough determination of the north and south line and of the east