292 REPORTS ON THE STATE OF SCIENCE, ETC. 
«3. To providea central institution for the dissemination of agricultural information, 
by evening lectures, conferences, or literature. 
«4, To superintend the Government experimental plots and to record and interpret 
the results. 
«5. To provide a summer school in agriculture for Primary School teachers:’ 
Conditions. 
‘The pupils must be 14 years of age and show satisfactory evidence that they are 
qualified to profit by the course of study in each school. Pupils are not resident 
at the school, but boarded in the neighbourhood under careful supervision. Fees 81. 
to 101. per annum.’ 
Syllabus of Instruction. 
‘The syllabus of instruction includes the ordinary school subjects to the extent 
to which they are carried in the ordinary grammar school, although the contents 
of the subjects are varied and one-third of the pupils’ time is given to agriculture. 
Sloyd, farm handicraft, and drawing are prominent in the curriculum. The science 
subjects are chemistry, physical geography, and climatology ; the agricultural science 
in the syllabus is elementary botany and zoology, and from my observation the 
methods, which are chiefly experimental and with a strong agricultural basis, are very 
efficient. The “ principles of agriculture ” deal with soils, particularly Victorian soils, 
rotations and cultivation of crops, irrigation, feeding and general management of farm 
livestock, ensilage, first-aid to animals, and the general principles to the valuation 
of fertilisers, milk and cream, farm crops and animal products. 
‘The farm attached to the school is worked in such a way as to illustrate the prin- 
ciples laid down in each section of the syllabus ; it is used as a centre of experimental 
work, and where it adjoins the school, as at Ballarat, the boys are constantly at work 
on it. When it is at a distance, the pupils spend a certain number of hours there 
each week and sleeping accommodation is provided, so that a limited number may, in 
turn, see and take part in the whole round of the farm work. As none of the farms 
are more than five years old, much of the preliminary work of building, clearing, 
draining, road-making, etc., has been done by the pupils, and at Ballarat the grounds 
surrounding the school have been laid out, planted, and kept in order by them. The 
High Schools exhibit produce, experimental material, and students’ work at the 
show of the Royal Agricultural Society at Melbourne; the competition is very keen 
and no doubt is one of the factors in stimulating the remarkable interest the boys 
take in the farm. 
‘T have dwelt upon the agricultural side of the school, but it must be kept in mind 
that most of the girls and some of the boys are hoping to be teachers, or to follow 
pursuits other than agricultural, and their education is therefore on more general lines, 
and includes languages, and, in the case of the girls, domestic economy. Mr. Frank 
Tate, the Director of Education for Victoria and the chief promoter of these schools, 
says that the reacting effect of the agricultural side upon the ordinary traditional 
subjects is great and satisfactory, and, encouraged by these results, the Department 
intends to develop High Schools with a commercial and an industrial side on precisely 
similar lines. Certainly I have never seen more energy and interest than was displayed 
by those boys and girls when observed at work. Mr. Tate says, further, that the 
fault of the vocational school in the past has been to make it narrowly technical— 
a pregnant opinion.’ 
5.—OPPORTUNITIES FOR VOCATIONAL INSTRUCTION IN QUEENSLAND. 
The Under-Secretary to Department of Public Instruction, Queensland, reports 
as follows :— 
‘Recognising the value and the necessity of vocational training during the latter 
years of school life, the Department of Public Instruction (Queensland) has, during 
recent years, amended the previously established courses of Primary and Secondary 
instruction. Though there remains a direct line connecting Primary, Secondary, 
and University activities, pupils may diverge at certain points to take up work which 
is preparatory to vocational employment. ‘The points of divergence lie (a) at or just 
before the completion of the Primary course, (b) half-way through, or (c) at the end 
of the Secondary course. Generalising, schools or classes giving instruction in com- 
mercial subjects are provided in the larger commercial centres ; technical instruction 
in towns where secondary industries are flourishing or expanding; elementary 
