364 REPOltT— lS9i. 



and to understand the use of a thermometer, and if they acquire but the 

 most elementary understanding of the nature of food and of the opera- 

 tions incidental to cooking by actually experimenting while at school, the 

 foundation of habits will have been laid and knowledge will have been 

 gained which will make them far more careful, competent, skilful, and 

 trustworthy when, later on, they become cooks or nurses or wives or 

 mothers. It is not too much to hope that a really satisfactory method of 

 teaching domestic economy and housewifery may ultimately be devised on 

 the basis of experience gained in the course of lessons such as are here 

 referred to. 



Your Committee observe with satisfaction that the Royal Commission 

 on Secondary Education comprises direct representatives of the Board 

 School system, and some who have interested themselves mucli in technical 

 instruction. In the present reorganisation of our scholarship arrange- 

 ments it is to be hoped that the proper co-ordination of the studies in 

 Natural Science will be duly cared for. 



APPENDIX. 



Addition to Alternative Courses in Elementary Science. 



Course H. — Experimental Arithmetic, Physics, and Chemistry. 

 N.B. — Instruction in this subject should be experimental, the experi- 

 ments being carried out by the scholars. 



Standards I. and II. — Addition, subtraction, multiplication, and 

 division of whole numbers experimentally ascertained by measurement of 

 lines in inches and centimetres, the number of squares in a given area of 

 squared paper ascertained by counting. 



Standard III. — Decimals. Inch and centimetre rulers to be used, the 

 inches and centimetres being divided into ten parts. Addition and sub- 

 traction, the same method to be used as in Standards I. and II. Results 

 in each case to be recorded in columns. Multiplication and division of 

 above by whole numbers. 



Standard IV. — Metre, its subdi\ isions. Addition and subti'action of 

 lengths containing them. Results to be recorded in columns, as in 

 Standard III. The gramme and its subdivisions treated similarly. Ap- 

 plication of above to numbers generally. 



Standard V. — Measurement of length, area, volume, and weight. 

 English and Fi'ench systems, relative weights of liquids and solids. Baro- 

 meter. Thermometers, graphic representation. Distillation. Filtration. 



Standard VI. — Evaporation. Wet and dry bulb thermometer. So- 

 lubility. Chalk and lime, their properties. Heat and acids on chalk, 

 limestones, &c. Chalk=lime-|-c]ialk gas. Chalk gas on lime and lime 

 water. Chalk gas in the air. Mortar. 



Standard VII. — Substances burnt in air, such as coal, sugar, itc, also 

 metals, such as iron, copper, ifec. Investigation into the increase in weight 

 of certain metals when burnt. Rusting of iron. Candle, phosphorus, 

 sulphur burnt in air confined over water. Active and inactive parts of 

 air. Composition of air. Dilute acids on zinc and iron. Inflammable 

 air and the formation of water therefrom. Inflammable air over heated 

 red lead. Composition of water. Steam over heated iron filings. Hard 

 and soft water. 



