There are worlds of interest, however, centred in the notable circumstance that Australia, a new and a semitropical country, is now being peopled by the descendants of those who belonged to an entirely different climate.  At the present time the old racial instincts are actively powerful, and exert an influence diametrically opposed to climatic surroundings; and, as a matter of fact, we are witnessing a struggle between our Anglo-Saxon heredities and our Australian environment.  But such a conflict against our destiny is one in which the odds are overwhelmingly on one side.  For of all forces, that of climate is the most powerful.  It is true that man is able almost to remove mountains, and that he can create rivers in an arid land; but to endeavour to resist the dominating influence of climate is to attempt the impossible.

Yet there is something more than all this which should induce us to follow the promptings of nature; this is the fact that Australia will only reach the zenith of her possibilities when her people conform to her climatic requirements.  For what would the latter mean?  Market gardens innumerable, and a healthy and lucrative life for all concerned; the development of her deep-sea fisheries, and employment, direct as well as indirect, to thousands; the cultivation of the vine, with all the wealth pertaining to smiling vineyards; the growth of the olive and other fruits, and all the other industries which only await their creation; and instead of this, at present, all we possess is the knowledge that we are the greatest meat-eating and tea-drinking race on earth.

PROGRESSIVE CHANGES IN THE THEORIES OF EDUCATION.

We are told that it was Jean Jacques Rousseau who first entirely severed education and learning.  In his Emile, published in 1762, he advocated a more natural and less pedantic method of training and developing the physical, mental, and moral faculties of the young.  The work produced an astounding effect on its appearance, and has largely influenced the educational methods throughout Europe.

Not so long afterwards, in 1801, Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi, permeated with the atmosphere following the French Revolution, gave to the world his views on education in his work how Gertrude teaches her children.  The essence of his belief being that “sense-impression is the foundation of instruction,” he counselled the development of all the faculties in preference to the mere acquisition of words.  “Words alone,” said he, “cannot give us a knowledge of things; they are only useful for giving expression to what we have in our own minds.”  Consequently, he believed in imparting instruction by a direct appeal to the senses and the understanding so as to call forth all the powers, selecting the subjects of study so that each step should progressively assist the pupil’s advancement.  He contended that observation was the method by which knowledge was principally gained, and that the perceptive faculties (intuition) were developed by observation.  Even in his own time his ideas were awarded a recognition of their value; in fact, he had the honour of being specially visited by Prince de Talleyrand and Madame de Stael.