284 The N.Z. Journal of Science and Technology. [July 
“ By specific heat is meant the relation in which one heat stands in regard 
to another, taking one as the standard heat. The geographical phenomenon 
depending upon it is that on it all other heats depend or take their heat 
according to the standard heat.” If the problem had come up in that 
pupil’s primary-school days as to why the desert sand is so hot, such a 
glorious example as the above of scientific definitions without sense or 
reality could not have arisen. I want to emphasize again that geologists 
should work actively to get physical geography recognized in the primary 
schools as Xhe most important scientific subject in the curriculum. 
To come next to the secondary schools, why is it that geography has 
been so completely and absolutely neglected ? Has it not been that at 
matriculation the subject came to a dead stop ? Our secondary schools 
are controlled rigidly by the requirements of examinations, and just because 
geography was not a University subject, except in a small way for a little- 
sought-for degree, and therefore led nowhere, it was belittled, neglected, 
despised, and buried under a dead-weight of other more urgent matters. 
All this can be changed, and will be changed, for the New Zealand 
University has come into line with other universities and recognized the 
subject as one worthy of a place in the course of study outlined for the 
Arts degree. Under these new and altered circumstances, what will be 
the attitude of the secondary schools ? I want to state here my next 
point, that the secondary schools must be urged to establish well-equipped 
geographical laboratories, and must be given guidance and instruction in 
the best way to set about it. Laboratories are quite as necessary for the 
adequate teaching of this subject as for physics, chemistry, botany, or any 
other science. Every school should have a room set aside for apparatus, 
and equipped with something more than just a globe, an orrery, and a map. 
Take the question of maps alone : we all know the poverty of most schools 
in this particular—at most they possess two maps of a country, one 
showing physical features, one showing political divisions and towns, 
and that is all; whereas modern teaching requires at least six or 
seven—one showing physical features, one showing temperatures, another 
rainfall and winds and ocean currents, another showing vegetation, another 
natural regions, another political divisions, another density of population. 
What a revolution is needed here ! Again, in addition, apparatus is 
required for map - constructions, for map - projections, for surveying, 
for contouring, for modelling. Only when these and others as well are 
provided will the practical side of the subject receive the consideration 
that it should ; and if we have realized anything recently we should at 
least have realized that for the British Empire the adequate study of 
geography is of supreme national importance. 
This reform in geographical teaching will come if the various Geological 
Sections of the Institute throughout the country lead the way, and see that 
sufficient prominence is given to the necessity for such equipment, and also 
insist upon geographical lecturers being appointed in the various colleges, 
and the subject made a real living subject in the degree course. 
A great impetus has been given to the study of geography by the 
introduction of a new method of presenting the subject-matter itself. By 
the introduction of what is known as “ regional geography ” it has become 
possible to present all the multitudinous facts in a new light; a scientific 
and logical presentation can be made, and the old objection to the subject— 
that its teaching method was of necessity an excessive exercise of the 
memory—does not apply. For instance, it is not now “ What and where 
is the capital of New Zealand ? ” but “ Why is Wellington the capital of 
