State parliaments retain legislative authority in all maters which are not transferred to the Federal Parliament. With respect to money bills the House of Representatives has special powers, and provision is made for cases of disagreement between the two Houses.

The Executive power, vested in the King, is exercisable by the GovernorGeneral, who is assisted by an executive council of seven ministers of state. These ministers are, or must become within three months, members of the Federal Parliament; they are paid salaries not exceeding in all £12,000 ($60,000) a year.

The Constitution provides for a Federal judicature, for an interstate commission on trade and commerce, for the transfer of State officials, State property, and State debts to the Commonwealth, for the collection and expenditure of duties during the transition period, and for alteration of the Constitution. Difficulties have already arisen in connection with the interpretation of the Constitution, and a measure has been passed providing, among other things, for the establishment of a high court with extensive appellate and Federal jurisdiction.

The site for the permanent capital of the Commonwealth, which must be situated in New South Wales and at a distance of at least 100 miles from Sydney. has not yet been selected; in the meantime the Federal Government has its seat at Melbourne. [From Statesman's Yearbook, 1904.]

The area and population of the six States comprised in the federation are as follows:

The leading industries of the colonies-agriculture, grazing, and mining— imply for a large proportion of the population all the conditions that pertain to rural life. The increase of the urban population is, however, noticeable. In New South Wales more than one-third the people (41 per cent) are in towns of above 9,000 inhabitants; Sydney, the capital, has 481,830. Of the population of Victoria 51 per cent are in towns having each more than 20,000 inhabitants; the capital, Melbourne, has 496,079.

The populations of the capital cities of the several States were as follows at the last census:

Under the conditions of population here indicated the difference between urban and rural schools is very marked. The standards expressed in the law are only attainable in the large centers, and this is so clearly recognized that special adjustments are authorized by law in all the States for isolated communities and pioneer settlements.

The principal facts in the current record of the public school systems are here presented. To complete the summary the statistics of private schools and universities are also given.

Statistics of private schools, universities, and colleges, 1992.

Private schools.

Total.

Universities.

Teachers.

Also three theological colleges and one college for women.
Also 621 students attending lectures.

THE SYSTEMS OF PUBLIC EDUCATION.

Control of the systems.-The control of education in each of the States is vested in a minister appointed for this particular interest or combining it with some closely allied interest; thus in New South Wales the minister of education has charge also of industry; in South Australia education and agriculture are combined. To the chief officer is consigned not only the general administration of the system but also its local direction. He decides as to the establishment of school districts and schools and controls the school funds and properties. In Victoria and New South Wales appointments of teachers and inspectors emanate from a civil-service board; in the other States they are made by the minister.

Local boards of advice are constituted by election (in Queensland appointed by the Governor), and their representatives carry great weight in respect to the school affairs of their several districts, but the authority remains in every case with the minister.

Sources of support.-In all the States the schools are supported by appropriations from the public treasury; instruction is gratuitous excepting in New South Wales, where a weekly fee is required of 3d. per child, but not to exceed 1s. in all for the children of one family. Power is given, however, to the minister or the local board to remit the fees in cases where the parents are unable to bear the charge.

Total.

Expenditure.

Per capita of enrollment.

Per capita of population.

Completeness of school provision.-The classes of schools recognized in the several laws give evidence of the widely different conditions under which the schools of different districts are maintained and also the efforts to adjust the school provision to these varying conditions.

The typical school is called simply the public or State school. It must maintain a certain average enrollment and must be kept in session the full time. There are also provisional schools; that is, schools which may be kept open for the full time annually, but whose average enrollment is below the standard, and half-time schools in districts where the number of children is too small to justify the expense of a full-time school. In such cases a teacher is appointed for two or more districts and holds the school in each on alternate days or for a half session each day, according to the distance to be traveled. House-tohouse schools have also been recognized as a temporary expedient. The plan of conveying children at public expense from isolated districts to a central school has been recently adopted and is gradually superseding that of special and half-time schools. In Victoria this plan is extensively employed and has virtually eliminated the half-time schools. Night schools, and in some of the colonies infant schools, complete the public provision for popular education. Compulsory attendance.-Attendance upon school is compulsory for all children of legal school age (this varies in the several colonies, as shown in the detailed statements) unless they are educated privately or exempt by law.

Secular character of the schools.-In Victoria and Queensland the public schools are strictly secular; in South Australia unsectarian religious instruction is allowed; in New South Wales and West Australia provision is made for religious instruction in the schools at an hour when children may be withdrawn if their parents object to their presence.

In addition to the very complete provision for elementary education maintained by the several governments every State in the Australian federation makes appropriations for secondary education either by a system of State scholarships open to competition or by grants to the individual institutions.

Technical education is also fostered in all the States and technical schools or classes aided by public funds are found in nearly all the chief cities; further particulars of the work are given in the citations from current reports.

The three Australian universities have been extensively aided by legislative appropriations and the University of South Australia by grants of land. These institutions are authorized to confer the same degrees as the universities in England, with the exception of degrees in divinity, and women are admitted to all their privileges.

The University of Sydney, New South Wales, opened in 1852, receives from government a yearly subsidy amounting with special aid to £12,317.

Melbourne University, Victoria, was established under a special act of the Victorian legislature, and the building was opened on October 3, 1855. The institution received in 1901-2, by way of endowment, £15,000 out of the general revenue. It is both an examining and a teaching body, and in 1859 received a royal charter empowering it to grant degrees in all faculties except divinity.

Affiliated to the university are three colleges-Trinity, Ormond, and Queensin connection with the Church of England, Presbyterian, and Wesleyan churches, respectively. The school of mines at Ballarat is also affiliated to the university. From the opening of the university to the end of 1902 4,784 students matriculated and 2,939 direct degrees were conferred. In 1902 the students who matriculated numbered 124, the direct graduates numbered 122, and there were 621 students attending lectures.

** *

The University of Adelaide, South Australia, incorporated in 1874, is authorized to grant degrees in arts, law, music, medicine, and science. Its endowment amounts to £131,200 and 50,000 acres of land.

Particulars from current reports.-The following details from the latest official reports of the several States are of special interest.

NEW SOUTH WALES.

School attendance.--In addition to the enrollment in public elementary schools, 243.667 scholars, there were 1,622 pupils in attendance in 1902 at other schools aided by the State, classified as follows:

Scientific and technical education.—A comparative statement of the total enrollment of students of the colleges and branch schools for the years 1896 and 1897 is given below:

interim

The year under review has been marked by the publication of the report of a commission of two persons appointed April 11, 1902, to proceed to Europe and America for the purpose of inquiring into existing methods of instruction in connection with primary, secondary, technical, and other branches of education and of recommending for adoption whatever improvements" might in the judgment of the commissioners be advantageously introduced in New South Wales.

The report thus far submitted, which deals wholly with primary education, comprises special reports by each of the two commissioners, setting forth with great fullness the characteristic features of primary education in the several countries visited. These reports are preceded by an analytical study of the conditions in New South Wales interspersed with critical comparisons with those of the countries visited and accompanied by recommendations as to the changes which are necessary to bring education in New South Wales to the level desired.

The following citations from the report relate (1) to special conditions affecting education in New South Wales; (2) to the chief defect in the system emphasized in the report; and (3) summarized conclusions as to the reforms needed.

(1) Under the caption "State of education in New South Wales" attention is called to the fact that the task of educating a large and very sparsely populated community is far greater than might at first sight appear, and the administration of public education has had a gigantic problem to deal with. There has obviously been much zeal and devotion in its work, and there is mechanical precision in its scheme. The greatness of the work undertaken should command public respect for it. How far it meets public needs will be discussed later. It has already been indicated that reform is needed. Some idea of the magnitude of the work of the department may be had from the following statement:

Total number of schools under the department of public instruction of New South Wales open in 1902.

The State is divided into thirty-five inspectorial districts, five of these being in the metropolitan area.

For these districts there are 31 inspectors' headquarters, Sydney being the headquarters of five inspectors.

* ***

Approximately 114,000 miles are covered annually by the inspectors of the department. This traveling extends over an area of about 281,000 square miles. (2) The pupil-teacher system.-The most serious defect in the educational system of New South Wales is the employment as teachers of young people of immature education, of immature physical and moral development, utterly without experience in teaching, and therefore without professional knowledge of its scope and significance. Until recently they could be taken at 14 years of age, a limit which, it was suggested at the departmental conference of January, 1902, should be merely changed to 15.

* * *

It is quite impossible in a country employing untrained and poorly educated persons as teachers to make popular education comparable to that of the countries where teachers are required to be previously well educated and trained, and if the State should decide to adhere to the practice of employing pupilteachers it should be with the full knowledge that in so doing it is electing to maintain a system of education decidedly inferior to the systems of Europe and America, and one that can not possibly produce satisfactory results.

*

The removal of aspirants to a teaching staff from systematic education at so early an age as 14 or 15 (or even 16) and the endeavor to make good their educational limitations by private reading, by instruction to be had from a more or less exhausted primary teacher, by the year spent in the training school, etc., can not be viewed with complacency if it be desired to make our education comparable to that of other countries. Let it be borne in mind also that, inadequate as it is, the training-school experience is that of only a relatively small number. Thus the whole case is even less favorable than above implied.

In regard to the outlook of a teaching staff, a matter of no small importance, it may be said that under the best of circumstances teachers, as a consequence of their daily association with children—that is, with those who can not meet them on a level of equal intelligence and information and can not subject their opinions to criticism, as would an adult-need a corrective, viz, one which will tend to broaden the view and give a more normal outlook upon the totality of things. There can be no doubt whatever that the professional employment of children as members of the teaching staff places that staff under such limitations as must, in their influence upon the spirit of the community, be regarded as detrimental; for under any régime that tended to leave teachers generally restricted in outlook their power of educating-i. e., of developing children's characters and minds-must be correspondingly defective.

The training system of New South Wales-that is, the teaching of pupilteachers by primary school teachers, coupled with a year spent at the training college by some (not all) of the teachers—can not be considered as an alternative to the European method-i. e., as an alternative in any way comparable therewith. * * **

Summarized conclusions.—The system of education in New South Wales indicates, by its scheme of training its teachers, by its absence of scientific and literary equipment in its training schools, by its curriculum, by its treatment of the subjects in its curriculum, by its lack of proper educational equip ment in its schools, by its inattention to proper hygiene, that it needs to be radically reformed; and one of the most important elements of the reform will be the better education and training of its teachers.

These conclusions and the recommendations to which they lead are discussed by the commissioners at great length. Space permits here only a single