what has been done at Toodyay. We are simply making the utmost use of the environment for the education of the child. But that is done in all districts. The environment supplies the material for the education. The locality determines, to a great extent, the feature of the education. Toodyay, being an agricultural district, much of the education there will centre on agriculture. The children there are taught elementary surveying with the use of an angle meter. They are taught how to find the area of any field and how to draw the plan. A great deal of arithmetic comes into that. They are also taught manual work, such as that which they would have to do on a farm; for instance, they will make models of gates and other articles of utility on a farm. All those would be made to scale. Then comes the theoretical education on elementary agriculture. For instance, the children are taught to become familiar with the various breeds of wheat. They see the growth of the wheat. They grow it themselves on a special plot of half an acre which is lent to them. They carry on their experiments there in the growing of wheat and the various weights of wheat. They do not claim to go in for any research work for any kind. They are really becoming acquainted with the important of experimenting.

10206. Do you know whether the department has offered any special inducement to teachers in country schools to take up that kind of education?—A committee has been appointed to go into the question of agricultural education in all its branches, and to make recommendations for putting it on a sound basis.

10207. Is agricultural education, or are subjects connected with agricultural education, encouraged in any of the schools in the metropolis?—Personally speaking, I would say that it would be a mistake to do that. The whole thing would be artificial; it would be unreal to start a course of agriculture here. The big thing is to keep the people in the country from drifting into the towns. To make agricultural education a main feature of the school work in metropolis, I think, would be a mistake.

10208. Would it not be an advantage if, in certain schools in the metropolitan area, a boy could get an elementary knowledge of agriculture?— Nature study is taught in all schools.

10209. The underlying idea of my inquiry is that it might be of advantage to make some attempt to interest town children in country life?—That is being done now, but I certainly would not like to see a course of instruction for the purpose of turning out farmers from the metropolis. A farmer in that case, in spite of himself, would be a calamity. An experimental plot could be worked at, say, Guildford. I might mention what is being done in the schools in the way of interesting the children in the industries of the State. One school recently paid a visit to Port & Company's timber mills, where they got first hand knowledge regarding Australian and foreign timbers, and the machinery used. Others visited cabinet works and learned something of the timbers used in the making of furniture. A number of others visited Cuming, Smith, & Company's chemical works. These visits are followed up with lectures. The visits suggest a course of science to the schools, and in that way the children are given wide ideas.

10210. The State's chief interest is to get an increased number of producers. It strikes us that the city child at the present time has no opportunity of becoming interested in primary production through anything he may learn in his younger days in the metropolitan schools?—Nature study will give him a great interest in plant life. The girls at the Toodyay school receive a course of instruction in elementary household management, and they are taught upholstering and needlework, the aim being to fit them to make the home attractive. We are seeking to train the girls' intelligence as well as that of the boys to meet the problems insuperable from a rural life.

(The witness retired.)

The Commision adjourned.