SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY. 
and commerce. This money will be the best-paying investment even 
made. It would be criminal to allow all these sacrifices to have been 
made in vain, and this would be the case if we could not hold our owl 
industrially against our rivals, with the result that we fall a prey tq 
the industrial aggressor. 
2 
Our place amongst the civilized nations of the world will, in the | 
long run, be exactly the place we occupy on the educational ladder, and 
no legislation—however ingenious—can alter this fact. It is the law 
of nature that the mentally weak falls a prey to the mentally strong, 
with individuals just as with nations. I think, therefore, that this 
radical treatment of the educational system is absolutely necessary, and 
that nothing less will do. Further, that this is the time to bring it 
forward. We must prepare for the industrial war now the present wan 
is over. 
The great importance of this matter should, I hope, be sufficient 
justification for our overstepping the strict boundaries of our duties, 
if such be the case, and if the Executive agree with my ideas, I would 
suggest that the Government be approached in such a way as the Execu- 
tive considers most advisable. 
I do not wish to draw attention to the various imperfections of our 
present educational system. I am afraid I would not be eompetent to 
do so properly, but if my suggestion of sending men to foreign countries 
to study their systems is carried out, on their return they would be 
able to speak with great authority. It may not be amiss, however, to 
draw attention to one or two points which strike me most: First, that 
students enter our Universities when their scientifie education is not 
sufficiently advanced. The result is that the first one or two years at 
the University are used by teaching the student what he already ought 
to have known before entering, and that, therefore, the available useful 
time at the University is curtailed by this period. All secondary 
échools should be under strict Government control, so that pupils leave 
these schools with the same standard of knowledge—and that standard 
4 good deal higher than at present—so that on entering the University, 
should they do so, the University teaching can begin at once, without 
the necessity of teaching first principles. The matriculation examina- 
tion should ibe a much higher standard. 
Another objection I have to the present system is that boys leave the 
primary schools at about fourteen years. They only enter their appren- 
ticeship—if they go in for this—at sixteen. The two intervening years 
they spend anyhow—mostly in the street, learning what they need not 
know, and not only forgetting what they have learnt, but also losing the 
habit of learning. When they enter their apprenticeship, they have 
facilities for attending excellent evening classes; but it is astonishing 
how few avail themselves of these, and how few—after they have joined 
these science classes—continue to attend. The reason is that they have 
lost all habit of acquiring learning, and know so little that they join 
the great number of badly educated men, who look down on a scientific 
training. The result is a lack of knowledge and trained reasoning 
amongst the working classes, which is a calamity. 
The want of unification in Australia is further a great drawback, 
All schools should be built on the same model—the best model—so 
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