away as the result of their schooling a 

 mass of undigestB'd information of very 

 little tise, but as intelligent human be- 

 ings to be given a mental experience, 

 which would enable them to develop all 

 their faculties, so as to be able, when 

 they left school, to confront the varied 

 problems of life m a satisfactory man- 

 ner. The aim of the paper had been 

 apparently mistafcen by Mr. Clemes. It 

 was not an advocacy of the control of the 

 whole of education by the Government. 

 For his own part, he would he delighted 

 hi the wh"[e of the educational work of 

 the State o.mid be undertaken by private 

 enterprise, so long as it was efficiently 

 done. Prii'ate enterprise was doing, and 

 had done, a very large and important 

 part in this and the other States, but a 

 large number of parents could not aiford 

 to pay for a private education, and so the 

 State stepped in, and undertook the work. 

 And the State was endeavouring to see 

 that the children were given the very 

 best possible education that could be pro- 

 vided. Ten per cent., perhaps 20 per 

 cent., of a child's life, and that the most 

 important period, was spent in school. 

 It was handed over to some master to 

 train, and the State had determined that 

 for so vitally important a work the 

 teacher siiould be trained. That was the 

 reason why they had started the training 

 school, and in Mr. Johnson, he felt sure, 

 they had the right man in the right 

 place. In a democracy such as theirs, the 

 people governed the country, and it was 

 therefore of the utmost importance that 

 the people should be educated. This was 

 being done by the State. After relating 

 an anecdote to show the value of 

 Sloyd teaching, Mr. Propsting concluded 

 by thanking Mr. Johnson for the very 

 able paper he had read. 



His Excellency said it was a very great 

 pleasure to him to see around him those 

 engaged in education work in Tas- 

 mania, the prominent instructors in pri- 

 vate schools, the prominent masters of 

 secondary schools, two Ministers of Educa- 

 tion, and other leaders of thought. He felt 

 the Koyal Society was performing a usefvrl 

 work in affording an occasion upon which 

 these questions could be discussed in a 

 scientific light. The touchstoneof Mr. 

 Johnson's fascinating paper might be 

 found, he thought, in one of the earliest 

 remarks in it. that the new education was 



not new. One of its principal character- 

 istics was the dififerentiation between 

 eLlucation and instntction. Education 

 might be divided into education of the 

 attributes of the mind and of the body. 

 Instruction comprised every branch of 

 learning — human and divine. Where to- 

 draw the line between the two had been 

 the problem and the mystery. He remem- 

 bered the first time he was in the Tas- 

 man Sea between New Zealand and Aus- 

 tralia. That was education. At that time 

 he had to cram up a whole lot of in- 

 formation from books to pass the matri- 

 culation examination at Cambridge. That 

 was instruction. He did not agree with 

 Mr. Johnson in his analysis of the bearing 

 C'f Plato's views on education. It was true 

 that it was largely aimed at developing 

 the physical qualities- of loaen and women 

 as animals, and beauty for the sake of 

 beauty m an aesthetic spirit, but the 

 founder of that system of edtxcation had 

 another thing in his mind^ and what the 

 most earnest and puzzled thinkers of Aus- 

 tralia had in their mind now, the connec- 

 tion between education and the pi'oblem 

 how to protect the Commonwealth from 

 danger. After glancing at later systems 

 of education. His Excellency went on to 

 refer to the principle of competitive ex- 

 amination, for which he telt great con- 

 tempt, but he did not sneer at the ex- 

 aminer at competitive examinations, who 

 was a creature of circtimstances. After 

 praising the modern organisation of train- 

 ing colleges His Excellency touched on 

 one of the drawbacks of democratic go- 

 vernment, the enormous difficulty of get- 

 ting rid of incompetent, worn-out, or 

 out-of-date servants. The remedy for 

 Ihis. in his opinion, was an adequate and 

 generous pension system for school teac ti- 

 ers. After some further remarks. His 

 Excellency propo'sed a hearty vote of 

 thanks to Mr. Johnson for his interest- 

 ing and able paper. (Loud applause.) 



In acknowledging the vote, Mr. John- 

 son corieeted a misunderstanding by Mr. 

 Clemes as to the u&e of the word private 

 school in Eng'and 50 years ago. The 

 schools referred to by Mr. Clemes were 

 not the ones he had had in his mind, but 

 the primary schools, where the children 

 of the poor were educated. 



This terminated the business, and the 

 meeting closed. 



OCTOBER, 1906. 



No meeting in October. 



NOVEMBER, 1906. 



On November 8th, Professor W. Baldwin Spencer lectured before the Society on 

 ■The Australian Aborigines." 



Other business was postponed, including a paper by Colonel W. V. Legge, K.A.,. 

 in " Ben Lomond " 



