fined to a list of capes, heights of mountains, etc. How far are such lists useful? and for what purposes? Illustrate from your knowledge of British capes and mountains.

(6) Describe in words, and illustrate by a sketch map, (a) the panoramic view to be obtained from Skiddaw, or Arthur's Seat, or Cader Idris; or (b) a sail down the Thames from Oxford to Sheerness; or (c) a week's tour through the Western Highlands of Scotland; or (d) a sail down the Severn from Shrewsbury to the Bristol Channel.

(7) Write out in parallel columns full rules and blackboard heads of a lesson on some county of England or Scotland.

(8) Describe the railway route from Liverpool to Glasgow, or from Perth to Edinburgh. Near, or over, what battlefields would the traveller pass?

(9) By what means would you teach little children the use and value of a map?

(10) By what means would you teach little children to distinguish a hill from a valley, a canal from a river, a lake from a sea, or an island from a peninsula ?

(11) What is the best method of teaching children to understand (a) the ebb and flow of the tide; (b) latitude and longitude; (c) the difference between fog, dew, and cloud? Draw up notes of lessons on one of these.

(12) Illustrate that the earth is a sphere, and not a plain surface.

(13) Write full notes of a lesson on islands.

(14) What advantages accrue from lessons on geography in an elementary school?

NOTES OF LESSONS.

(Where these subjects are not given in Major's "Notes of Lessons," they should be specially prepared from reading-books, text-books, and the encyclopædia.)

The following subjects have been recently selected for Notes of Lessons by the Government :—

Numeration, Fractions, Compound Proportion, Cleanliness as essential to health, Healthy exercise, Ventilation of a school-room, "Eyes and no eyes," Conditions of health to be satisfied in building a house, Uses and pleasures of gardening, Economical method of warming rooms, Means of locomotion in large towns, Innocent popular amusements, A railway station, A flower show, The human hand, An apple, The human eye, Breadmaking, Coal, The ocean, A kitten, Use of iron, A complete sentence, Tobin's system of ventilation, "High interest implies weak security," Electric telegraph, Popular cheap literature, Rain, Carnivorous animals, Adverbs of time, Biography of some English or Scotch worthy.

REGISTRATION.

The subjoined extract from the New Code and Instructions to Inspectors, together with the actual experience of the teacher in the school, will afford the best means of auswering the questions set by the Department on this subject:

Attendance.-"An attendance "

secular instruction

means attendance at

(a) During one hour and a half in the case of a day scholar in a school or class for infants; (b) During two hours in the case of a day scholar in a school or class for older children;

(c) During one hour in the case of an evening scholar. (d) The class registers must be marked and finally

closed before the minimum time constituting an attendance begins. If any scholar entered in the register as attending is withdrawn from school before the time constituting an attendance is

complete, its entry of attendance should be at once cancelled.

(e) The minimum time constituting an attendance may include an interval for recreation of not more than

15 minutes in a meeting of three hours or not more than 10 minutes in a shorter meeting. (f) For boys, military drill under a competent instructor for not more than two hours in any week or 40 hours in any school year; and for girls, lessons in practical cookery, where the inspector reports that special and appropriate provision is made for teaching it, for not more than 40 hours in any school year, are reckoned as instruction for the purposes of this article.

No attendance is, as a rule, recognized in a day school for any scholar under three years old, or in an evening school for any scholar under 14 or over 21, but children under 14 who are exempt from the legal obligation to attend school are recognized as scholars in an evening school.

Average Attendance. The "average attendance" during any period is the number found by dividing the total number of "attendances by the number of times on which the school met during such period.

For the purpose of calculating the average attendance, but for no other purpose, each "attendance " of a half-time scholar shall be counted as one attendance and a half. (New Code, 1883.)

Registration.—In view of the fact that the grant made to a school is mainly calculated on the average attendance, accurate registration of admission, progress, and attendance continues to be of essential importance, and will require special care on the part of managers and watchfulness on your own. In Appendix II. you will find a revised edition of the official rules, which have been long in force for the

proper keeping of registers, and it will be well to call the special attention of managers and teachers, especially in new schools, to the details set forth in that Appendix.

Irregularity of Attendance.-It must be clearly understood that irregularity of attendance, unless it is produced by some of the causes which constitute a reasonable excuse for absence, cannot be accepted as an excuse for the want of progress of any scholar. It has now become the interest of all concerned in the pecuniary results of the annual examination to increase the average yearly attendance by diminishing daily irregularities; but it may be hoped that higher motives will prompt all interested in education to press upon those entrusted with the execution of the law the actual legal obligation by which all parents are bound to present their children at the beginning of each meeting of the school. Cases of gross neglect on the part of the authorities, if brought to your notice, should form the subject of a special report to the Department. In your general judgment of the school, you will be careful to make allowances for all such neglect if the managers and teachers cannot be held responsible for it.

Excuses for Non-attendance on the Day of Examination.— The Code requires

I. That all scholars whose names are on the registers of the school must be present at the inspection, unless there is a reasonable excuse for their absence.

II. That all such scholars whose names have at the end of the school year been on the register for the last 22 weeks during which the school has been open must be presented to the Inspector for examination.

Hitherto, since part of the grant was based upon the individual payment for the successful examination of all scholars who had attended 250 times in the course of the year, managers were interested in getting together all such scholars on the day of inspection. As the grant is now

based upon the average attendance of all the scholars, and will be adversely affected by the failure in examination of backward scholars, it will be your duty to see that every child, who is liable to be presented for examination, is present, unless there is a reasonable excuse on the day of examination, and to record the absent scholars on the schedule as if they had been present and had failed. If the number of absentees be large, the absences should be a positive disqualification for the mark "good" or "excellent" in assessing the merit grant. Among reasonable excuses, probably the most general will be found to be infectious disease in the home, storms, unavoidable absence from home, a death in the family, or the scholar's having left the neighbourhood. Beyond these it is not probable that many reasonable excuses will be found, though cases of an exceptional character may arise, and can only be decided on the day of inspection.

Withholding Children from Examination.-Many wellfounded complaints have been made of undue pressure on backward scholars by keeping them in after school, by long home lessons, or by an injudicious use of emulation. The fact that a reasonable allowance may now be made for exceptional cases under Article 109 e, iii. will, it may be hoped, diminish this evil. Irregularity of attendance cannot be considered as a valid reason for withholding a child from examination; and managers of schools should refuse to countenance this plea, and should co-operate with all concerned in promoting greater regularity of attendance. The following excuses may, however, be reasonably accepted for withholding a scholar-Delicate health or prolonged illness; obvious dulness or defective intellect; temporary deprivation, by accident or otherwise, of the use of eye or hand. But in order that all scholars whom it is proposed to withhold may not be neglected by a teacher, it will be your duty to look carefully through the