AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION IN AUSTRALIA. 225 



State of New South Wales will serve to show just where agri- 

 cultural education fits into the scheme. 



In New South Wales, then, the educational system com- 

 mences with a two-years course in the kindergarten. This is 

 followed by a six-years primary school course, at the end of 

 which, prior to admission to higher courses, a qualifying certi- 

 ficate is required in proof of completion of the full primary 

 course. For further instruction the young student may choose, 

 broadly, between three two-year courses, namely, ( i ) the evening 

 continuation school, (2) the superior public school, and (3) the 

 first two-years course of the High School. Of these three, each 

 of the first two again offers three choices ; these are, in botli 

 classes (i.e-, in evening continuation as well as in superior public 

 schools), (a) junior technical schools, (/;) commercial schools, 

 and (c) domestic schoofs for girls. For the high-school course 

 above referred to there is a choice between (a) the district school, 

 (b) the intermediate high school, and (c) the high school. 



Each of the three sets of two-year courses finishes up with a 

 certificate following on naturally from the particular course 

 taken ; the student may thus acquire either a continuation school 

 certificate, or a superior public school certificate or an inter- 

 mediate certificate. 



Further vistas now open before him. If he has a continua- 

 tion school certificate, he may choose between entering the cen- 

 tral technical college (which is the channel of entrance either 

 to the trades school or the advanced domestic school, 

 or the advanced evening school: if he has the inter- 

 mediate certificate, two alternatives are likewise open, 

 he may either continue in the high school for the third 

 and fourth-year courses, or — and this is where agricultural train- 

 ing finds its niche — he may proceed to Hawkesbury Agrictiltural 

 College. 



After completing either the high school course or the four- 

 years' agricultural course at Hawkesbury, the student receives a 

 leaving certificate, and may then either proceed direct to Sydney 

 University, or, if he wishes, first pass through a teachers' college 

 or the advanced courses at the technical college, and thence a way 

 is opened by which he, too. may ultimately enter the University. 



It remains to be added that the principle of free education 

 prevails throughout the greater part of the above scheme, fees 

 being" charged only in the highest grades, while liberal provision 

 is made for bursaries and scholarships. 



Hawkesbury College. 



In New South Wales, as in Victoria, a chair of Agriculture 

 has been established at the University, to which Hawkesburv 

 Agricultural College has been affiliated. Sydney University has, 

 moreover, a chair of Veterinary Science, and so, although diffi- 

 culties have been experienced in the past in obtaining men for 

 investigational work in coimection with the 15 experiment and 

 demonstration farms under the Agricultural Department's con- 



