Blß,— in my first letter I stated that complaints as to the unsatisfactory charaoter of the present system ot edu cation were spread over a very wide field, bat what ought ta pive additional fores to these complaints is the fact that. they have remained the same through a lODg course of years. Some ten or twelve years since a gentleman filling the posi tion of Professor to the New Zealand University spoke very strongly on the subject in the coarse of an address to the Canterbury Educational Institute. Be desoribed it in very mild terms as a system for exercising the memory, by which the children were enabled to ac quire what he called bundles of knowledge producible on demand, leaving " mental -". training," the most valuable part of edacatioa, to take care of itself as best it \. may. .. He farther expressed bis belief ■ ' 'that, as a people, we took npon ourselves ■ ■ the responsibility of education with very - little notion of what edncation really ■ •-,.: meant, or of the best means of achieving ; onr object. Such statements as these, -: , ..oomlng from suoh a source, are likely '■- ; '&iteZW-**Msi&A>-. and U we wish ..^../^Ml^^jobi tonal; proof of onr Intweit 7 £~£?'~ t £~}-0~~~p;' ■V1 - *J&£ ***-?•-": -'- -'•■ ~ ' -1-

lr In the subject we shall carefully ln er quire what evidence is afforded for as their justification. Now, with regard r- to the latter of these statements I will m just draw attention to one point in jo their justification, and that is the incon* rs sfcttf ncies attaching to the present system. I have already briefly referred to two iD g previous letters. I will now give a third, k and a very important one it is. It con !- sists in the fact that while the Govern- Is ment profess a desire that their teachers c should be as fully qualified aa possible for tbo work they are about to undertake, c they are, apparently without perceiving r it, at the same time doing their best to prevent such a consummation. 