776 PROCEEDINGS OF SECTION J. 



amount of inferior material for the good reason that so long as the 

 bolts and planks are of the proper official size and shape when they 

 leave his hands, it is matter of indifference to him whether they be 

 of good iron or wood or not. It is emphatically his business to insure 

 that the material is as good as possible. 



Herein comes the opportunity for that heartfelt protest which 

 arises from teacher, parents, and Press whenever the systematic 

 protection of the child body is mooted. " It is introducing a new 

 subject," we are told, " and the curriculum is already too full. There 

 is no time for any more." This may be readily admitted, but by 

 applying Spencer's relentless classification cannot room be found for 

 the higher knowledge by abolishing some of the less useful ones? 

 Over 300 years ago the Emperor Akbar looked into the matter in 

 India, and found that an unconscionable time was spent in teaching 

 rerj little. He cut down school time by one half, explaining that the 

 other half could then be employed in making the race strong and 

 healthy, and acquainted with the real things of life. I am fully 

 aware that this is heresy, that the most beautifully rounded argu- 

 ments can be advanced to show that every subject in the curriculum 

 is of greater necessity in nation-building than any other subject 

 which can be suggested. My answer to this can be found in the vital 

 statistics of Mr. Knibbs, and the morbidity returns of any Australian 

 hospital. It can be found in full detail in the schools themselves, 

 where children in thousands are being carefully trained to develop 

 short sight and curvature of the spine, where the partially deaf are 

 treated as "stupid" or "dull" where teachers pass their lives apply- 

 ing stereotyped psychological formulas to physical pi'oblems of 

 infinite variation. 



It will be urged that school buildings are erected nowadays on 

 more or less hygienic lines, that physical development (of a kind) 

 is being taught in many schools, that systems of medical inspection 

 are being talked about in some States and have been actually applied 

 in others, that teachers are instructed in matters relating to school 

 hygiene, that elementary physiology and health and temperance are 

 often taught to the children. It is all true, but the fact remains that 

 teachers themselves as a class do not yet accept seriously and con- 

 scientiously the care of the child body, nor does educational official- 

 dom so accept it. There are individual exceptions, and noble ones 

 at that, but they are mere drops in the ocean of ignorance and 

 indifference which envelopes the body of young Australia, that body 

 with which he will make his individual living and live his individual 

 Ife, and which may have to be used to protect Australia in a decade 

 or two from now. If life were a succession of newspaper readings and 

 parlour tricks, if disease were abolished, and accidents rendered 

 impossible, if enemies could be kept away by a strong letter from 

 "Constant Reader," and a mass meeting in a local town hall, if 

 everybody were as good as they should be, and if the Golden Age 

 returned on earth, the present methods would be admirable. Pending 

 this desirable time, we might with advantage be practical, and give 

 young Australia as good an opportunity as we can to grow up a broad- 

 chested, keen-sighted, hard-fisted race, respecting its body, and better 

 equipped mentally than is at present possible. 



