608 PROCEEDINGS OF SECTION GI. 



5.— THE IMPORTANCE OF NATIONALITY. 



By Dr. HARVEY SUTTON, Education Department of Victoria. 



At the present time much popular attention has been directed 

 towards the Austrahan and his characteristics, and a good deal of 

 vigorous language has been ventilated through the press, prophe- 

 sying either ridiculous failure or superlative supremacy for the 

 Australian and the Australian nation. The truth is that but little 

 definite is known on the subject. The spirit of landatur temforis 

 acti condemns the present when judged against the " good old 

 times " with its halo often the result of selective forgetfulness. 

 The tendency has been to see only the faults of the new and the 

 virtues of the old, so we get natives of the home-land suspecting 

 or even condemning the progress of their own children under an 

 environment acknowledged to be superior. Prejudice thus obscures 

 the judgment of many, and it is only of recent years that in 

 England the term colonial is ceasing to have an insinuation of 

 inferiority. 



The real difficulty is that we know little or nothing of the 

 Australian because we have not paid attention to a simple method 

 of classification. This is now being employed in Victoria in con- 

 nection with the medical examination of State school children. 

 The parents are asked to fill in a card for each child. Among the 

 questions asked on this card is the nationality, i.e., birthplace, 

 not only of the child and his parents, but of the grandparents of 

 the child. The information thus supplied is collected and recorded 

 from the point of view of the degree of Australian nationality of 

 the child, ^.^..each country is recorded by its initial letter — A. 

 Australian, S. Scotland, E. England, etc. This is further condensed 

 by awarding four marks for each parent and one mark for each 

 grandparent. 



Thus ^^ , 



Five main types are found. 



E 



E<E 

 E <C F Ei2 Immigrant. 



^ ^ ^ S . Australian born. 



A <; F A Se Ee 



E<E 



Both parents immigrant. 



