RELIGIOUS EDUCATION IN N.S.W. 799 



|)ictures ; if in learning drawing liis energies were expended less in the 

 •direction of tiying to produce pictures which were pleasant to the 

 eye, and more in the direction of representing a well-known object in 

 ground plan and in elevation, or even -in section. He could then learn 

 to make a record of his observations concerning the works of a clock, 

 or a sewing machine. He could give an intelligible description of the 

 j?treets in the immediate neighbourhood. It would also be to his 

 advantage if the time now devoted to arithmetic of the banking type 

 were devoted to rough experiments on weights and levers, with 

 •calculations appertaining thereto, all calculations being rough ap- 

 proximations (of an accui'acy of 1 per cent, as in engineering problems). 

 Algebra would be cut down to so much as is necessaiy to enable him 

 to understand a formula such as is given in engineering pocket-books, 

 all complicated problems such as those involving the solution of a 

 quadratic equation being solved by the system of trial and error. 

 Such an alteration in the present system of education would do much 

 to inculcate that clearness of thought which can only be obtained by 

 a departure from the worship of the infinitesimal and the recurring 

 decimal, which drives men to state the National Debt with a " shilling 

 and penny" exactitude. It would also lessen the tendency of the early 

 training towards mercantile pursuits, a tendency which is responsible 

 for much of the desire of the youth to settle in the cities and leave the 

 land. 



13.— THE PLACE OF RELIGION IN THE SYSTEM OF STATE 

 EDUCATION IN NEW SOUTH WALES. 



By ALEXANDER LOBBAN, Exq., Senior Inspector of Schools, New South Wales. 



In order to form a correct conception of the characteristic 

 features of the State system of education m New South Wales now, it 

 is necessaiy to go back to the early years of colonial settlement to 

 follow the process of evolution that has taken place. Very great 

 difficulty was experienced in those days to obtain the most elementary 

 instruction for the children, as neither teachers nor school buildings 

 were available. Each of the early Governors took an interest in the 

 children, and the old records show that a day school was opened in 

 •Sydney in 1803. 



As settlement increased, and clergj'men arrived in the colony, 

 the establishment of elementary schools was left almost wholly in the 

 hands of the ministers of religion, to whose zeal and energy at that 

 time much of the subsequent success of education in the colony may 

 be traced. Funds from the public Treasuiy were usually supplied to 

 pay the salaries of the teachers ; and the scholars met in the churches 

 o\- other buildings that the promoters could obtain until schoolhouses 

 were built. The first schools established were denominational. 



Each denomination opened schools in connection with its own 

 churches; and this led to what many considered an unjustifiable 

 expenditure of public money. For as two, and sometimes three, 

 schools were conducted in a district where there were barely enough 

 children to support one, it followed that the amount paid for teachers' 

 salaries was greater than the circumstances warranted. Moreover, 

 bitterness was engendered by the rivahy to obtain pupils for these 



