ANNUAL ADDRESS. XIII. 



in the public attitude towards educational subjects. This 

 great improvement in the educational atmosphere is one, 

 if not the most important result already achieved by the 

 Commissioners, and is the only reply needed to the objection 

 raised by some that no commission of inquiry was called for. 

 One has but to compare the degree of interest now being 

 evinced in educational matters, and the intelligence thereof, 

 with that which characterised the public mind some three 

 or four years ago to realise what a marked improvement 

 has taken place. It was previously alleged that no Com- 

 mission was necessary, as already there was to hand a 

 sufficient amount of information on the educational methods 

 of other countries in the published reports of previous 

 inquiries both by the authorities here and in other parts of 

 the world, but fortunately this erroneous view did not 

 prevail, and the commissioners have vigorously attacked a 

 task much more difficult than that of merely collecting 

 information as to ivhat other peoples are doing, viz. — of 

 determining ivhy they are doing it, and so endeavouring to 

 discover what are the right methods for this country to 

 adopt to meet its own particular needs. No scheme of 

 education can be imported ready made, and wholesale, from 

 even the best educated country in the world. 



We may trust that one direct result of improvement in 

 the educational atmosphere of the community is that we 

 have once and for all got rid of the idea — "Ours is the best 

 in the world." It had so long and so often been reiterated 

 that Australia had little to learn and much to teach, in the 

 matter of education, that one of the first steps necessary 

 for real progress was to obtain such a view of the educa- 

 tional position of other nations that we should realise how 

 very far indeed we were from occupying so enviable a 

 position, and in this matter the commissioners have been 

 distinctly successful. 



