PROCEEDINGS OF SECTIOX J. 627 



what we are to do to protect our boys. It is indeed a difficult ques- 

 tion to answer, and I believe that unless we can " bring the 

 suitors' hands from offering," that unless Mesda/nes les ossassines 

 commencent, there is only one safeguard — to make our boys 

 fastidious, if we can. The pulpit has so far failed; has the teacher 

 tried his best ? And even if it takes a generation, can nothing be 

 done to create a true sense of responsibility in the parents 1 There 

 are hundreds — nay, thousands of good women, who must feel 

 strongly on this question. Is no combination on their part possible 

 to bring about a reform, which shall make our girls value them- 

 selves at their true worth, and so recover the lost respect of boy- 

 hood, and take their rightful place? 



■'Oh, wasteful woman! She who may 



On her sweet self set her own price. 

 Knowing he cannot choose but pay — 



How has she cheapened Paradise ! 

 How given for nought her priceless gift. 



How spoiled the bread and spilled the wine, 

 Which spent with due respective thrift, 



Had made brutes men, and men divine!" 



In some particulars, we can begin our education at a stage 

 which children of other countries only reach by a difficult process. 

 We have not the same necessity to foster individuality and self- 

 reliance. Yet already some of our educational authorities show 

 signs of experimenting at large with the Montessori method — a 

 method invented by a noble woman, and one which has the foun- 

 dation of a great idea — an improvement on Frcebel — but a method 

 born in a hospital, intended for the feeble-minded, and trans- 

 ferred to the slightly less defective gutter children of the slums 

 of Rome. Surely we may yet learn our methods from our own 

 children, as Dr. Montessori learnt hers. 



To some extent a parallel is our Defence Department's craze 

 for its ' ' sealed pattern ' ' of physical training, which is very good for 

 the young and the weak, and was designed for the easy exercising 

 of large numbers at the least possible expense. But the normally 

 healthy Australian boy, full of exuberant vitality, demands, not 

 unnaturally, more than twisting and hopping. He must have 

 something which requires courage and power of attack. "Very 

 pretty! but I want the boy who can hold a plunging horse," was 

 an English cavalry colonel's comment on a display similar to that 

 which the Commonwealth military competition winners recently 

 had to give, and gave with admirable precision, before the Governor- 

 General. Once again, borrowed systems! Quite excellent for 

 their original purpose — quite inadequate to our Australian 

 material. 



