736 PROCEEDINGS OF SECTION J. 



SO paid, and pr(^bably, too, not five present-day teachers could tell you 

 to whose suggestion these little annual windfalls are due. 



But how was our Queensland teacher doing without a training 

 college all this time? Well, several expedients were resorted to, and 

 if our teachers as a body were not trained they certainly resemble 

 Topsy in having " growed" (and " growed considerable"). Our early 

 teachers had few subjects to teach; there was wonderful freedom from 

 interference — the solitary inspector, who examined all Queensland, 

 seldom troubled you more than once a year. But after a time things 

 were shaped up, and the inspectors — for there were now two — began 

 to act as Masters of Method. They were wonderfully kind, patient 

 and considerate; they took immense pains, and little by little the 

 educational army swung into line. Later Mr. Kerr took charge of 

 the Normal School, where his influence, seemingly at first wastefully 

 concentrated, was really in the end spread to the utmost limits of the 

 colony, till now, wherever you find a man who has worked under the 

 veteran training master, inspector, and master of the model school, 

 there you have a man who has high ideals in his work, who is never 

 afraid to work hard in the interests of his pupils, and who will hand 

 doAvn the influence of the " grand old man" of Queensland to untold 

 generations of teachers. The addition of Messrs. Piatt and Ewart to 

 the inspectorate completed the guiding force which really shaped our 

 system finally, inspired our teachers with their ideals, and set every- 

 thing in good going order. 



About this time it occurred to someone in authority that a little 

 " tone" would be a good thing for the Education Service, and that a 

 needed touch of refinement and erudition would be added by the 

 appointment of an inspector with high university degrees. He came 

 and he saw, but, alas ! did not conquer, and after a very uncomfort- 

 able time he solved the difficulty by resigning. He did one good 

 service in proving that not every learned man can be a teacher or a 

 school inspector. About this period, too, the ranks of the college- 

 trained men who had ventured in ones and twos to Queensland were 

 reinforced by a steady stream of teachers drawn from Great Britain. 

 There were some who proved unsuitable for the work, but the 

 majority had enough " adaptability" to shake down in their new 

 surroundings, and after acquiring the indispensable "colonial experi- 

 ence" they became a valuable element in the service. At their best 

 they might have numbered a sixth of the whole staff ; now, I daresay, 

 they are not more than a twelfth, if so large a proportion as that. 

 But even a little leaven, if it be of the right sort, cannot fail to 

 leaven the mass. The professors and masters of the training colleges 

 of Britain have spoken through them to our assistants, and our pupil- 

 teachers are speaking to them daily now, and the influence, the 

 impetus thus acquired goes on in ever-widening circles and spreads 

 already even to the remote corners of the State. They did not found 

 our first Teachers' Associations, but they have done much to streng-then 

 and extend them. The work of these associations has completely 

 changed the whole nature and outlook of the Queensland teacher, and 

 much of this is due to the spirit of discussion, inquiry, and comparison 

 of methods and views resulting from those friendly meetings of 

 teachers hitherto almost unknown in Queensland. At the starting of 



