496 



SCIE-NCE. 



[Vol. VIII., No. 199 



foot. Eight scientific or learned societies, headed 

 by the Royal society of Victoria and the Royal 

 medical society, keep alive an interest in various 

 branches of science. The Australian health so- 

 ciety, vs^ith its free lectures in Melbourne, and 

 branch lectures in various provincial towns, does 

 much practical good among the people, and the 

 same may be said, of the mechanics' institutes and 

 public libraries to be found in most cities of this 

 colony. 



New South Wales. 

 Just as New Brunswick and Nova Scotia in the 

 Canadian group of colonies appear to have 

 worked out, theoretically at any rate, the most 

 perfect educational scheme, so, in the Australasian 

 colonies a similar place must be accorded to New 

 South Wales. The whole of the present system, 

 which, as usual, is under a minister of public in- 

 struction, dates from the act of 1880, which au- 

 thorized, as state schools, five classes of schools, 

 the recognition of four of which by the state was 

 quite a new thing. These are, 1", primary ; 2°, 

 superior public schools, for additional instruction 

 in the higher branches ; 3°, evening schools, for 

 those who had no opportunity for education in 

 primary schools ; 4'', high schools for boys, which 

 prepare for the university ; 5°, similar schools for 

 girls. In 1885 there were 605 pupils in these 

 high schools, from a colonial population of 930,000. 

 The gross annual expenditure of this act exceeds 

 £700,000 ; and the total school population is 

 280,000, or approaching one-third the entire pop- 

 ulation of the colony. 



In every public school, object-lessons, geog- 

 raphy, and drawing are taught, even in the lowest 

 classes. In the fourth chss of priuiary schools, 

 object-lessons include "natural historj^, manufac- 

 tures, elementary mechanics, and the science of 

 common things;*' in the fifth class, "arts and 

 manufactures, the laws of health, social economy, 

 the duties of a citizen, the laws of the state, and 

 experimental physics." Of course, the whole of 

 this is treated in very elementary fashion ; but 

 the point to be observed is, that the same idea is 

 carried out in the higher schools, of which 1 have 

 already spoken. In the Sydney grammar-bchool, 

 a school sid generis, there is now a modern side. 

 in which natural science takes a prominent place. 

 The university is now exceedingly well organized. 

 It grants a B.Sc. and a D.Sc. degree, the latter re- 

 quiring a research paper. It also grants corre- 

 sponding degrees in engineering. Its degrees in 

 arts involve attendance upon certain courses of 

 lectures in natural science. I regret, hovi'ever, to 

 say that its matriculation examination can, if de- 

 sired , be passed in literary subjects and mathe- 

 matics alone, to the exclusion of science, which, as 



is well known, cannot be done in the University 

 of London. The public examinations, however, 

 set on foot to test the education in schools, include 

 a large number of science subjects. In connec- 

 tion with the university are several denomina- 

 tional colleges ; and a large and well-endowed 

 new medical school has just been built in the uni- 

 versity grounds. 



The most remai-kable feature, however, in the 

 public instruction of this colony, is the state sys- 

 tem of technical education. The subject was be- 

 ing discussed when I was there in 1880, and I 

 remember being invited by Sir W. Manning and 

 Sir Harry Parkes to address a meeting about it 

 in Sydney. Since then it has made extraordinary 

 strides, mainly under the guidance of Mr. Edward 

 Combes, the president of its board of governors. 

 It has followed the principles laid down by the 

 city and guilds of London institute, and arrange- 

 jnents are in progress by which its work will now 

 be tested by the examiners of that body. The 

 Sydney college has 50 classes, in 13 depai'tments, 

 and itinerant lecturers give instruction in 16 of 

 the principal towns of the colony. The number 

 of individual students in Sydney alone last year 

 was 2,634, or more than at the technical institute 

 in Finsbury ; and of these, 500 were women. In 

 that year, also, 196 popular lectures were given 

 in Sydney, entirely on scientific subjects, at which 

 the average attendance was 208, the total being 

 40,767. In this exhibition are specimens of the 

 work of the college. One remarkable feature of 

 it has yet to be noticed : all this excellent work 

 has been done in temporary and hired buildings ; 

 the college has actually no permanent abode. 



Among the other means for spreading a knowl- 

 edge of science, the magnificent museum, the ex- 

 quisitely beautiful botanical gardens, the public 

 libraries, the Royal society of New South Wales, 

 the Linnean society, and similar smaller organiza- 

 tions, must not be forgotten. 



Queensland. 

 The primary schools are divided into ' state ' 

 and 'provisional.' There are 425 of the former, 

 and the free course of instruction includes geog- 

 raphy, object-lessons, and elementary mechanics. 

 Listrviction in other subjects is charged for, and 

 must be given out of the ordinary school-hours. 

 The object-lessons are defined to include "an ele- 

 mentary knowledge of the science of common 

 things — of the materials and processes necessary 

 to produce the most common manufactured prod- 

 ucts — and of the laws of health." In 1884 

 there were 52 scholarships from primary to gram- 

 mar schools, and these again are largely aided by 

 government grants, £90,000 having been thus 

 spent to the end of 1884. From these schools, 



