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Education. 



This training: will illustrate the phenomena of nature, train and expand the 

 child's power of observation, excite an impulse to work, reveals attr active features 

 in what has hitherto been considered menial work, and unfolds elevating influences 

 in the child's surroundings. 



This, however, opens up the question of training for our teachers. This may 

 be regarded as the bed-rock of success in this connection. All the enthusiasm and 

 earnestness of a teacher may be thrown away in the absence of a competent know- 

 ledge of the subject. We have in our Agricultural College all the equipment for 

 conducting the work, with the exception of the teaching staff. Already a start has 

 been made at the Hawkesbury Agricultural College, where five acres have been set 

 apart for conversion into an orchard, flower, and vegetable garden, and experi 

 mental plots. Another missing link is the education in the secondary schools 

 tending towards the preparation of the student to rural life, and an entrance to the 

 Agricultural College ; in fact, complete the co-ordination of the different branches of 

 primary, secondary, and technical education. 



Many leaders of education in new countries such as ours will agree with 

 Professor Ray Lankester, when he declared in the course of his Romanes lecture, 

 delivered in the Sheldonian Theatre, Oxford, in June last, " That he wished to see 

 the classical and historic stl schemes of education entirely abandoned, and its place 

 taken by a scheme of education in the knowledge of nature." He urged the study of 

 Physics, Chemistry, Geology, and Biology. 



Our secondary schools might, with advantage, teach elementary agriculture, 

 zoology, physiography, or physical geography, elementary physics, chemistry, 

 botany, geology, mathematics, manual training, book-keeping, and physical exercise. 



The Agricultural College is becoming more popular every year; greater 

 provision will require to be made to meet the demand for further accommodation. 

 The effectiveness of the tuition will be vastly increased by students who have gone 

 through the training outlined in the primary and secondary schools. The usefulness 

 of the College and Experiment Farms might be extended in such a way as to assist 

 the elementary schools in training the teachers, and in supplying seeds, roots, trees, 

 plants, &c, for the school gardens. 



The University should prove the ultimate aim of those students whose 

 attainments warrant them going to the higher training of a degree in Agricultural 

 Science. New Zealand and Victoria grant such degrees, why not the Sydney 

 University ? One of the most urgent demands of our agricultural system is com- 

 petent and trained men as teachers. This will become more emphasised, and to 

 complete the chain of our work the degree is essential. 



I would, in conclusion, also urge a system of teaching to reach the farmer. 

 Natural difficulties present themselves in our large areas, where the agriculturist is 

 difficult to reach, but such are not unsurmountable. Farmers' institutes, reading 

 courses for farmers, educational conferences, have been made a success in Canada 

 and the United States by means of peripatetic lectures. Our agricultural societies 

 can be utilised as a basis to extend their work from that of organising an annual 

 show, to technical education. One form especially commends itself to those whose 

 life work in the country is associated with live stock, i.e., " First aids to sick and 

 injured farm animals." Immense losses are annually made through ignorance in the 

 treatment of live stock. 



I cannot close the subject without paying a tribute of praise to the New 

 South Wales Parliament and the Department of Agriculture for the splendid organ- 

 isation in the founding and conduct of essential aids to our producers. The Aeri 

 cultural Gazette, The College, Experimental Farms, the staff of" trained Experts the 

 Scientific Staff, have built up, and are engaged in desigining a system of agriculture 

 suitable to our conditions, and of incalcuable value to the country.— The AarirnU 

 tural Gazette of Neiv South Wales, October, 1905. * ^ancuL 



