May 



1888.] 



SCIENCE. 



223 



Lendenfeld, while travelling through the wooded parts of Aus- 

 tralia for days and days, did not observe a single blade of grass. 

 The soil, which consisted to a great extent of red clay, was smooth 

 as asphalt pavement, and hard as rock. Rain, when falling on such 

 soil, does not penetrate it, but runs off rapidly. The low-lying regions 

 are inundated ; but it appears that the water is not evaporated there, 

 but flows through subterranean channels into the ocean. There 

 are no rivers with large watersheds in Australia. Even the largest 

 river, the Murray, is navigable only in winter and for light steam- 

 boats. 



The water runs off so quickly that it has hardly time to pene- 

 trate the hard and smooth ground. The woods, therefore, do not 

 increase the humidity of the soil and of the air. 



In many places the squatters begin to cut down the trees, so far 

 as the laws permit their doing so. The local effect is marvellous. 

 Lendenfeld observed that so many kinds of grasses began to grow, 

 that on the same space on which, before the cutting-down of the 

 trees, only one hundred sheep could be raised, a thousand found 

 sufficient food. 



This effect is brought about in the following way. As the trees 

 do not absorb the humidity of the deep layers of the ground, it 

 reaches the surface and is absorbed by the grasses. The decaying 

 stems of the grasses form small channels in the soil, which lead to 

 larger ones that were formerly occupied by the roots of the trees. 

 Thus the ground becomes permeable for water. When rainfalls, it 

 runs off slowly, as the grasses hinder its movements. It penetrates 

 the ground, and thus a greater portion of the total amount of rain- 

 fall benefits the spot at which it falls. Part of it evaporates, and 

 thus increases the humidity of the air. 



It has been said that the springs become more numerous by the 

 cutting-down of the woods, as the grasses do not use the humidity 

 of the deeper layers of the ground. Lendenfeld, however, main- 

 tains that the increase of water carried by the springs is not as 

 great as the increase of water retained in the soil through the action 

 of the grasses, and that a great part of the water of springs is 

 evaporated, and increases the humidity of the air. 



From all these facts, Lendenfeld concludes that in Australia the 

 effect of deforesting the country is not a decrease, but an increase, 

 of rainfall. 



NEW ZEALAND LETTER. 



The long-continued commercial depression under which this 

 colony still labors affects every class of the community, and is work- 

 ing a quiet, but in some respects much-needed, revolution in the 

 habits of the people. There is no doubt that the colonists in for- 

 mer years had no ideas of economy in any direction ; but these are 

 now being forced on their notice in all sorts of ways. Early in last 

 session of the Colonial Parliament, the Stout- Vogel ministry vv^as 

 overthrown, and Major (now Sir Harry) Atkinson assumed the 

 reins of office, under strict pledges to enforce retrenchment in every 

 possible direction. As far as the public can judge, these pledges 

 are being fulfilled fearlessly and without favor. 



In matters educational the primary-school system and the Uni- 

 versity of New Zealand come directly upon government for assist- 

 ance. The former is altogether, and the latter to a considerable 

 extent, dependent upon the annual appropriations made by the 

 legislature. Considerable reductions have been made in the amount 

 allotted for primai-y schools; but, as is so often the case, these re- 

 ductions have not been effected in perhaps the best directions. 

 Thus it was considered advisable to contract the school age at one 

 or both ends. At present it commences at five years of age, and it 

 was proposed to raise it to si.x. This would have disposed of the 

 charge so often brought against the infant classes, especially of 

 country schools, that they are merely convenient nursing-depots, 

 where the younger children of a family are kept warm and out of 

 mischief for a great part of each day. But the House of Represen- 

 tatives, in their wisdom, saw fit to retain the school age at five, but 

 to knock off the highest or seventh standard. In times of depres- 

 sion, when it is difficult to find occupation for either old or young, 

 it is commonly noticed that boys who have completed their sixth 

 standard work are sent adrift to loaf on their parents, who cannot 

 get them any work to do. For such a class alone, it would have 

 been economy to keep the upper standards open, even had a small 



fee been charged. No education is so bad as that of the streets 

 and of enforced idleness. 



Another possible and profitable source of retrenchment in this 

 much-overgoverned community would have been the abolition of 

 some of the smaller education boards. It seems absurd, that, 

 with a small population of some six hundred thousand, there should 

 be something like twelve education boards, each with its paid staff 

 of officials, — secretary, inspectors, etc. The abolition of at least 

 six of these would have niade a substantial reduction in the educa- 

 tion vote : but, as it would have weakened or endangered the posi- 

 tion of many of our precious representatives, it was not even con- 

 sidered, but, instead, the training-colleges at Auckland and Well- 

 ington were abolished ; so that no adequate provision now exists in 

 the North Island for the education of teachers. The free, secular, 

 and compulsory system of primary education of this colony is one of 

 the things the community is proud of, but it is a decidedly retro- 

 grade step when provision for adequately training its teachers is 

 not made. 



Secondary school education is all carried on in specially endowed 

 schools, governed mainly by separate boards, and practically inde- 

 pendent of the education department. Private enterprise in this 

 direction is so handicapped by the endowments, that, except in a 

 few cases of very special class schools, there are no private schools 

 in the colony. A determined effort is made by a certain section of 

 politicians to capitalize all these endowments for the benefit of 

 the colony, and especially of primary education, and thus make 

 secondary education dependent upon the support it might receive 

 from those classes most able to provide it. Such a measure, 

 if carried into effect, would close the avenues of the higher edu- 

 cation to the poorer classes ; while at present, owing to the low 

 fees charged at the high schools (averaging from $50 to §62.50 per 

 annum), and to the liberal provision made for scholarships, every 

 boy or girl of promise in the primary school has a good chance of 

 continuing his or her education in higher subjects at the public ex- 

 pense. While the secondary schools have not, in most cases, been 

 retrenched directly, yet, as the revenues from their endowments 

 have in nearly every case fallen considerably, the salaries of all 

 their teachers have had to be correspondingly reduced. 



The teaching of science occupies a very fair place in the curricula 

 of New Zealand schools. In the primary schools very little is at- 

 tempted beyond a few lessons in physics, physiology, or chemistry 

 in the higher classes of the better schools. But alongside of this, 

 rather heavy demands are made upon teachers going up for their 

 examinations. Indeed, some knowledge of so many science sub- 

 jects is demanded of them, that this part of the examination for 

 classification defeats its ov/n object. Were each teacher permitted 

 to select one or two branches of science, and were they expected to 

 attain a fairly high standard of efficiency in it, the introduction of 

 really good science-teaching in the schools would soon follow, and 

 indeed could be demanded. 



In the secondary schools, provision of a kind is usually made for 

 teaching one or two branches, although in only two schools in the 

 colony is there a science-teacher who is a specialist. In most cases 

 one of the staff is selected for his knowledge of some scientific sub- 

 ject ; while the head master, being nearly always a classical scholar, 

 does not, as a rule, attach a very high value to this department of 

 school-work. This, however, is counterbalanced to a great extent 

 by the importance which the New Zealand University attaches to 

 science in its junior scholarship examinations, whose requirements 

 constitute in many cases the guiding lines of the curricula of the 

 high schools. For example: at the examination held last Decem- 

 ber, out of 60 candidates, 12 offered in botany, 26 in chemistry, II 

 in mechanics, 14 in heat, 6 in electricity, and i in sound and light ; 

 that is to say, that, as each candidate who took science had to select 

 any two subjects, 35 had offered themselves in this section of the 

 examination. Most of the schools have either a small laboratory or 

 at least a small stock of materials for teaching chemistry and some 

 elementary physics, but little or none for the more specialized 

 branches of the latter. 



It is difficult for one not acquainted with the actual standards 

 attempted, and the results gained, in schools of other countries, 

 to compare ihe work done in our educational establishments with 

 that done elsewhere. At the same time it is a fact that the medi- 



