from what he had intended, and he joined in the burst of laughter which followed.  Another amusing contretemps occurred when the same gentleman and I were visiting the parents who had pleaded for exemption from the payment of fees.  At one house there was a grown-up daughter who had that morning left the service of the gentleman’s mother—­a fact enlarged upon by my companion during the morning’s drive.  “Why is your eldest daughter out of a place?” was the first question he put to the woman.  “She might be earning good wages, and be able to help you pay the fees.”  “Oh!” came the unexpected reply, “she had to leave old Mrs. ——­ this morning; she was that mean there was no living in the house with her!” Knowing her interlocutor only as the man in authority, the unfortunate woman scarcely advanced her cause by her plain speaking, and I was probably the only member of the trio who appreciated the situation.  I am sure many people who were poorer than this mother paid the fees rather than suffer the indignity of such cross-questioning by the school visitors and the board—­an unfortunate necessity of the system, which disappeared with the abolition of school fees.

It had been suggested by the Minister of Education of that period that the children attending the State schools should be instructed in the duties of citizenship, and that they should be taught something of the laws under which they lived, and I was commissioned to write a short and pithy statement of the case.  It was to be simple enough for intelligent children in the fourth class; 11 or 12—­it was to lead from the known to the unknown—­it might include the elements of political economy and sociology—­it might make use of familiar illustrations from the experience of a new country—­but it must not be long.  It was not very easy to satisfy myself and Mr. Hartley—­who was a severe critic—­but when the book of 120 pages was completed he was satisfied.  A preface I wrote for the second edition—­the first 5,000 copies being insufficient for the requirements of the schools—­will give some idea of the plan of the work:—­“In writing this little book, I have aimed less at symmetrical perfection than at simplicity of diction, and such arrangement as would lead from the known to the unknown, by which the older children in our public schools might learn not only the actual facts about the laws they live under, but also some of the principles which underlie all law.”  The reprinting gave me an opportunity to reply to my critics that “political economy, trades unions, insurance companies, and newspapers” were outside the scope of the laws we live under.  But I thought that in a new State where the optional duties of the Government are so numerous, it was of great importance for the young citizen to understand economic principles.  As conduct is the greater part of life, and morality, not only the bond of social union, but the main source of individual happiness, I took the ethical part of the subject first, and