458 REPORTS ON THE STATE OF SCIENCE, ETC. 



with macliinery and implements, and seemed to have a natural gift in 

 managing animals. Such boys go abroad and prosper, whereas the 

 former return disappointed men or become wasters. 



A real difficulty was the question of capital. The parents of an only 

 son would usually not allow him to go abroad, though they had the 

 capital. Where there were three or four boys, the parents favoured the 

 idea of life overseas for one at least, but often their capital was a sheer 

 impossibility where money had to be shared among a number of boys 

 who have already cost a good deal to educate. 



Mr. H. W. Cousins said he could well imagine the audience agreeing 

 that the idea might be excellent for the large piiblic and private schools, 

 but very dubious concerning its application in the case of small rural 

 grammar and secondary schools. Yet was it not to these smaller schools 

 in country areas to which they must look for the greater proportion of 

 those who would eventually emigrate and settle overseas ? What chance 

 had such schools, with their limited staffs, of giving to their pupils any 

 training in rural subjects that would prepare them for agricultural life 

 overseas ? 



His reply to that was — and he was privileged to say so as the result 

 of seventeen years' experience as headmaster of rural secondary schools — 

 that such work could be done, indeed was being done to-day, in several 

 small rural secondary schools without in any way prejudicing the value 

 of the curriculum for those pupils destined for the Universities or any of 

 the usual professions. 



To base one's teaching largely upon the environment of the child — 

 upon the plants and animals and daily tasks of farm and garden — naturally 

 meant that biological studies entered largely into the curriculum, and his 

 contention was that biological teaching in schools was not only practicable 

 but also essential if they were to give the best possible training for life to 

 every boy and girl whatever his (or her) future work might be, whether 

 in town or country. 



Further, one of the reasons why he advocated biological studies in 

 school was because children were interested in living things — in plants 

 and animals — and this natural interest was a wonderful incentive to work. 

 He knew there were many who said, ' Let the boy come up against hard 

 things ; it will do him good to learn to overcome difficulties.' Was it 

 not true in the majority of our State-aided schools to-day that, while 

 there were many children whose parents were worth their thousands, there 

 were also many others who had to be given free places, maintenance 

 grants, and travelling expenses in order that they might receive a 

 secondary education ? Were not many of those children up against 

 hard things from the day of their birth ? Was there much virtue in 

 finding difficult things for them in school ? 



For such children he wanted school to be a place they would enter 

 with joy, a place which should teach them that education could lift them 

 out of the hard places of life and give them pleasure and content ; to do 

 tliis he must get interest into the work and no subject was more fruitful 

 than biological studies as a source of interest. 



He would also say in this connection that too often in the past the 

 curricula of their schools had been too academic in character, and had not 



