6 
Australia were winter months. The trees were provided by the 
Government and the tree-planting was done by the children them¬ 
selves, the ground being prepared and the holes dug by them, with 
the assistance and direction of the teacher. The children were 
taught to watch the growth of the trees that were planted, and 
many valuable lessons in forestry and plant life were learned in 
this way. New South Wales was the second of the Australian 
Colonies to adopt it, and the Countess of Jersey wrote some very 
charming verses on the subject, and these had been set to music 
and were sung on the occasion. Arbor Day had taken deep root 
in Australia, and he did not think that any school festival was 
more popular. 
Bands of Mercv were also an institution which existed in 
connection with the schools of Australia. The children wore a 
little badge, and made a promise that they would try to be kind to 
living things. 
He was glad to hear the chairman allude to Nature-study. He 
would like to draw attention to a Nature-Study Exhibition which 
was to be held in London in July next. A great deal of work had 
been done in that matter in Australia, thanks to the Government 
and to the School Boards. 
He had thoroughly admired the eloquence and the appropriate¬ 
ness of Sir George Kekewich’s address. He was sure that no more 
valuable education could be given to children, moral, physical, and 
intellectual, than teaching them to become friends of trees and 
flowers and birds. 
The motion was carried unanimously. 
Archdeacon Sinclair moved—“ That the Committee whose 
names are set out on page 1 of the Report, be elected for the 
ensuing year.” He said that the committee had been doing such 
excellent work during the last eleven years that he was quite sure 
that all the members would heartily welcome their re-election, and 
wish them increasing power and influence in the excellent enter¬ 
prise to which they had addressed themselves, particularly in the 
coming year when they would be endeavouring to carry out the 
measure for the confiscation of the birds and birds’ eggs found 
upon convicted persons. There was no doubt that such a measure 
would do more than anything else to discourage illegal trespassing 
and bird catching, for many of the men who took the birds and the 
eggs would not mind paying a fine if they could keep their booty. 
He was very glad to have an opportunity of supporting the 
proposal for a tree-planting day. It was deeply impressed on his 
mind some jears ago by the late Ambassador, Mr. Bayard, that tree 
planting in the United States had been attended with the most 
beneficent results in getting American children to feel an interest in 
and sympathy with nature. He agreed with the criticism that the 
