EFFECT OF EDUCATIONAL REGULATIONS ON PHYSIQUE. 795 
Dried-up bread and butter, or probably decomposing sandwiches, are 
the only support until their return’ at 5, when most likely and 
naturally the mother gives them a piece, which affects the appetite for 
the evening meal. 
Growing children need food more often than adults ; they cannot 
and ought not to take in too much at a time, while they use it up very 
quickly owing to the rapidity with which the processes of life are 
carried on. -Rapidly growing boys in particular should be hungry all 
day long. Children with gnawing stomachs are not in a fit state, to 
receive instruction of any kind. Prom 2 till 4 much physical harm is 
done : the pupils fall asleep ; they have to be prodded up ; the teachers 
are too lazy to whack in the afternoon; tbe forced brain efforts affect 
other parts by drawing too long on the life-giving fluid, for the amount 
of blood contained in the body is insufficient to fill the whole of the 
muscular system at once. It is necessary that, when one part receives 
too much, another should be receiving a smaller supply of blood. 
Just here I would bring under notice some advice of Mr. Sharpe, 
the senior chief inspector of schools in England: — 
“The duty of a manager is to keep before him the picture of a 
little child, and to regard a little child under conditions — 
(1.) The physical conditions of health necessary, both for rest 
and action — i.e a merry, well-developed child. 
(2.) The intellectual condition of attentive watchfulness — i.e., a 
questioning not passively receptive child, a child seeking 
for knowledge spontaneously and eagerly.” 
The standards of proficiency are too high ; a little child of eight 
may have to manipulate 999,999,999, and to know ho man notation 
to D. Teachers complain of the multiplicity of subjects. “As the 
schedule now stands,” writes one teacher, “the amount of work to be 
got through in the upper classes is undoubtedly too great. This 
remark applies to the whole colony, though naturally the difficulty is 
greatest in the North. Opinions differ as to what should be cut out. 
My own opinion is that quite half of the work set down under the 
head of ‘object lessons’ might be swept away with great advantage to 
all concerned.” Another advises that there should be no set reading 
books — only books on history, travel, and on general information. 
Instead of pushing arithmetic to the extent now done, he would have 
only easy stock sums, and profit aud loss problems. I find that there 
is no algebra or Euclid taught ; the system then is accountable for the 
absence of training in deductive reasoning; there is no knowledge of 
argument. Feeding with little bits of information is not teaching to 
learn, and this is the course pursued in the object lessons.* In half 
an hour moral instruction, domestic economy, temperance, first aid in 
accidents, agriculture, mechanics, conduct and manners are to be 
touched on. The teacher exercises only the brain, which wo have in 
common with the lower animals, and leaves the higher cerebral 
localities undeveloped. At eleven and a-half a girl may be examined 
about atoms and molecules, amyloids, and plastic food substances 
before she can light a fire, and without knowing how to cook a potato. 
Examinations are held at the wrong time of year. In Brisbane, 
in December, you can ask yourselves if you feel braced up for con- 
tinued effort ; how much more must the strain be 800 or 1,000 miles 
* The writer has been misinformed on this poiut. — Editor . 
