42 J. H. MAIDEN. 



it will become a subject regularly included in the science 

 curriculum of all educational institutions. Not only will 

 the University teach students who desire to learn some- 

 thing of the subject for its own sake, but some of the future 

 teachers of botany will receive training there. If the 

 teachers be first taught, they will exert their infectious 

 influence on impressionable minds far and wide, and very 

 soon it will be no longer true of us that we have the most 

 interesting flora in the world, but are not particularly 

 anxious to learn about it. At the same time, I am far 

 from suggesting that botany has not been taught, and well 

 taught, at the University. Professor W. A. Haswell, d.sc , 

 f.r.s., the Professor of Biology, has been teaching it for 

 nearly thirty years, and of recent years he has been ably 

 supported by his assistant, Dr. S. J. Johnston. But botany 

 has not had the kudos which it will have when its individu- 

 ality is recognised by the foundation of a separate chair 

 for this subject alone. 



Mr. A. G. Hamilton, a trained teacher, well known for 

 his original botanical research, has for many years been 

 engaged in the practical teaching of botany to public school 

 teachers in the Teachers' College, while Dr. S. J. Johnston, 

 apart from his University work in botany, has been actively 

 engaged in conducting botanical classes in the Technical 

 College. 



I have before me the "Courses of Study for High Schools," 

 prescribed by the Department of Public Instruction for 

 1911. The courses extend over four years, and I find under 

 the head of Biology (Botany), a General Course for Third 

 and Fourth Year Students, and an Industrial Botanical 

 Course for Agricultural Students in their First and Second 

 Years. This teaching is under the direction of Mr. Hamilton- 

 Sir Joseph Banks wrote to his earnest protege George 

 Oaley in March, 1795, 



