728 PROCEEDINGS OF SECTION J. 



the teachers directly, and by their colleges indirectly, in the moulding 

 and training of young Queensland teachers cannot well be appraised. 

 It is noteworthy that the Director of Education and nine out of the 

 twelve Inspectors of Schools are college trainees. It may be partly 

 due to these reasons, aside from financial considerations, that the 

 establishment of a training college has been so long deferred. But 

 the sands of time run quickly through the glass ; the elder of the 

 brotherhood of home-trained teachers are gradually reaching the 

 allotted span of public service life ; unci with the passing of the home- 

 trained teachers will pass the influences and associations of the train- 

 ing colleges. Therein lies our danger; because, however excellent the 

 local material may be, and its excellence is not doubted, it is not fair 

 to expect the native-born, without special training, to produce results 

 superior to, or even equal to, the results produced by specially trained 

 men. 



Secondary Education. 



The Director of Education in Victoria in his recent report upon 

 observations made during an otFicial visit to Europe and America 

 vigorously applauds the steps which have been taken in Great Britain, 

 France, Germany, Austria, the United States, and the smaller 

 countries to provide efficient secondary schools. In these countries, 

 Mr. Tate found, as other Australian educationists had found before 

 him, a more or less completely co-ordinated system of schools, ranging 

 from the primary school to the university, maintained or controlled by 

 the Government or by public bodies. As a result of this organisation 

 the schools are either free schools, or the fees charged are so moderate 

 that higher education has ceased to be tlie privilege of the well-to-do. 

 Mr. Tate scathingly condemns the apathy which has been shown in 

 Victoria in regard to Secondaiy education. Compared with Victoria, 

 or indeed with any Australian State, Queensland has little reason to 

 be ashamed of the support which she has given to Secondary educa- 

 tion. In 1860, that is within one year of her founding as a separate 

 State, an Act was passed to provide for the establishment of grammar 

 schools in which was to be given an education higher than that which 

 could be given in the elementaiy schools. The remarks made by Mr. 

 R. G. W. Herbert, who introduced the Bill in the Legislative Assembly, 

 are very interesting. He said: — "The question of education might 

 be considered under three heads as primary', grammar fichool, and 

 collegiate. The Bill introduced into the other branch of the Legis- 

 lature was intended to provide for primary education, principally 

 under the national system, and would make adequate provision for 

 imparting fundamental instruction at a cheap rate to all classes of 

 youth without distinction of creed or religious profession. The Bill 

 he now introduced was intended to provide for a higher order of in- 

 struction of a useful and thoroughly practical character by establish- 

 ing grammar schools easily accessible to the colonial youth of all 

 denominations throug-hout the colony. ... It was desirable that 

 the instruction to be afforded in^ the grammar schools should be 

 afforded at a cheap rate, so that as many as possible might avail 

 themselves of it, and that it should be such as would best qualify the 

 youth of the colony for discharging the duties that would devolve upon 

 them in after life." 



