Education, Literature, and Art 223 



by the appearance of the citizen army of Aus- 

 tralia, the cadets moved them to the greatest 

 admiration. Owing to this practical system of 

 military drill, there are few young men in Aus- 

 tralia at present who do not know something of 

 drill and the use of the rifle. 



Secondary education is almost completely given 

 up to private enterprise, and the result is far from 

 being satisfactory. The exclusive aim of many 

 Australian "private schools" is to pass as many 

 scholars as possible at the matriculation examina- 

 tion of the State University. This examination 

 has a commercial value, for many banks, insur- 

 ance offices, and similar institutions make it a 

 sine qud non for entrance into their services. The 

 proportion of matriculated students who after- 

 wards attend University lectures is remarkably 

 small, most of them entering commercial life as 

 soon as they matriculate. The masters of the 

 private schools have, therefore, but one end in 

 view, and many and ingenious are the cramming 

 systems devised in order to obtain good results at 

 the matriculation. If the advertisements of the 

 private schools may be accepted as a guide, suc- 

 cess in this direction is the surest method of 

 obtaining fresh pupils. 



Most of the mining centres have schools of 

 mines, subsidised by Government, where scientific 

 and technical education may be obtained for very 

 moderate fees. The instructors at these mining 

 schools are, as a rule, very competent men, and 



