1,042 unspecified persuasions, 13,697: Pagans, 9,345. In 1883 there were 770 ministers of religion and 1,521 churches, with an average attendance at public worship of 243,369 persons. The Sunday-schools have 105,162 scholars on their registers.

All matters pertaining to State education are controlled by the Minister of Public Instruction. School teachers are recognised as civil servants and paid fixed salaries by the Government, and during the year 1884, 1,875 schools, embracing 2,032 departments, were in operation, comprising 8 high schools, 75 departments of superior public schools, 1,550 ordinary public schools, 237 provisional schools, 111 half-time schools, 40 groups of schools under itinerant teachers, and 11 evening public schools.

The Public Instruction Act came into operation in 1880, and since that period there has been an increase in the number of schools as follows:-8 high schools, 17 superior schools, 518 ordinary public schools, 4 provisional schools, 24 half-time schools, and 40 house to house schools, or a total of 611. There has been a decrease in the number of evening public schools of 36, making the total increase 575. It will be seen that high and superior education are being cared for and making satisfactory progress. In addition to these are six other schools supported or aided by the State, viz:-The Sydney Grammar School, the "Vernon" and "Biloela " Industrial Schools, Two Orphan Schools and the School for Deaf and Dumb and Blind.

The total school population in December 1884, between the ages of 4 and 14, was 250,628, equalling 27-2 per cent. of 921,129, the total population of the Colony. Of this total school population, about two-thirds, or 168,466, were in attendance at State schools in 1884, and about one-third received instruction in private schools or at home. Of the children attending private schools, 24,786 are reported to receive instruction in Roman Catholic Church schools.

To enforce the compulsory provisions of the Public Instruction Act, 47 school attendance officers and two assistant officers are employed. As regards the working of these provisions the principal officer reports:-"Experience has shown that in a large number of cases of prosecution for breach of the compulsory clauses of the Act the same offenders have repeatedly to be dealt with. This is doubtless owing to the fact that the fines inflicted are so very small that it becomes much more easy to pay the fine once in a half-year than forego the earnings of their children or wards. In this way numbers of unfortunate children within the statute age are being deprived of even the most elementary education."

Four hundred and six new school buildings and additions to 41 existing buildings were completed in the year, affording accommodation for 33,027 pupils. The material condition of school buildings has been greatly improved during the past year, the new public schools having been planned with a strict regard to sanitary requirements. Great attention has also been paid to the lighting, and the importance of securing good ventilation kept in view. The total expenditure on public school sites, buildings, furniture, repairs and rent during the last five years, or during the time the Public Instruction Act has been in operation, amounted at the end of 1884 to £1,130,327.

The Sydney University was incorporated by an act of the New South Wales Parliament in 1851. Its annual grant from the public funds is £5,000, which is largely added to by special votes and private donations, and notably lately by a bequest of Mr. Challis of £180,000. Its council is empowered to grant degrees in Arts, Law, Medicine and Science, and by Royal letters patent, under the sign manual of Her Majesty, Queen Victoria, these degrees are to be recognised as academic distinctions, and entitled to rank, precedence, and consideration in the United Kingdom and in British Colonies and Possessions throughout the world, just as fully as if they had been granted by any University in the United Kingdom. It has several denominational colleges affiliated to it, and considerable sums have been bestowed by wealthy colonists for scholarships and prizes. A new University Medical School has been established in connection with it, provided with laboratories, class-rooms and theatres for anatomy, surgery, pathology, midwifery, materia medica and medical jurisprudence.

A Technical College has also been established, under the direction of the Board of Technical Education, which was appointed on the 1st of August, 1883. The course of studies for the students, and system of instruction adopted, is practically similar with that employed by the City and Guilds of London Institute. The college contains thirteen departments, viz :-Agriculture, including agriculture, botany, and veterinary science. Applied mechanics, including mechanical drawing, naval architecture, and metal-plate working. Art, includiug practical plane geometry, practical solid geometry, perspective model drawing, freehand drawing, &c. Architecture, including carpentry and joinery, masonry, bricklaying, carriage-building, plumbing, and cabinet-making. Geology, including mineralogy and mining. Chemistry, including laboratory instruction in practical and theoretical chemistry and metallurgy.

Commercial economy, including French, German, Latin, arithmetic book-keeping, caligraphy, and correspondence. Mathematics, including civil engineering, surveying, navigation, and acturial science. Music, including 'class singing and instruction in theory, harmony, composition, &c. Elocution, including art of public speaking and reciting. Pharmacy, including materia medica, and pharmacy. Physics, including natural philosophy, optics, sound, electricity and telegraphy. Domestic economy, including cookery and household management.

It also gives popular science lectures four nights weekly, in the large hall of the Sydney Mechanics' School of Arts, for the benefit of the working classes, and to induce young men to become students in the college classes. Itinerant lecturers also give instruction in all the principal towns of the Colony. The number of students in the college classes amounted last year to 2,128, and at the annual examinations of the Board 590 attended for examination and 350 passed. The instruction given is of a very high order, and has been productive of excellent results. The fees are exceedingly low, so as to give every opportunity to young men of obtaining a thorough technical education.

The Sydney Grammar School had an enrolment last year of 398 pupils, and at the annual university examinations eight scholars passed the senior and twenty-six the junior; and all the scholarships open to matriculation students were won by pupils of this school.

The Australasian Museum is an excellent institution, containing large and comprehensive collections. There is also a Technological Museum and a National Art Gallery, which has an annual Parliamentary grant of £5,000, to be expended in paintings, sculpture, and water-colour drawings. This is also supplemented by donations. Admission is free, and it is open on Sundays as well as week days; 262,861 persons visited the gallery during 1884.

The Art Society of New South Wales gives instruction in the fine arts, and has annual exhibitions of original works by Australian artists. Its management is under a president, vice-president, and a council of twelve. It has already been highly instrumental in the development of all matters pertaining to Australian art.

The Free Public Library contains 64,283 standard works, and is of the greatest utility. During 1884, 99,782 persons used the reading-rooms, and 62,095 borrowed books from the Free Lending Library.

Public instruction in the early days of colonial history was of a voluntary character, supported by payments of the scholars and

contributions from members of religious bodies. The State also contributed. Thus the Female Orphan School was founded by Governor King in the year 1800, and at the time Wentworth wrote his description of the Colony, 1818-19, there were two public schools in Sydney, at which 224 children received instruction. There were also establishments in almost every district that had become settled for the gratuitous diffusion of education. The masters of these schools were allowed stipulated salaries from the Orphan Fund. Particular duties, called "the Orphan Dues," were allotted for the support of these schools, but they were found to be insufficient, and at a time when the entire revenue of the Colony amounted only to £20,000, one-eighth of this sum, or £2,500, was devoted to educational purposes. Two private institutions also were maintained by voluntary contributions for the dissemination of religious knowledge, viz., the Auxiliary Bible Society of New South Wales and the New South Wales Sunday-school Institution. Both these societies were established in the year 1817. In 1831, when Sir Richard Bourke became Governor, in his first address to the Legislative Council he recommends the members to provide for such objects as shall tend to improve the morals, and gives the greatest prominence to the support of public schools. He continued his interest in this object. during the whole period of his governorship, and recommended the Imperial Government to introduce into New South Wales the national system, which had a few years previously been established in Ireland. The Imperial Government sanctioned this recommendation, but considerable opposition was raised by the colonists. Sectarian feeling was too strong to allow of the system being introduced, and the fact of its not being denominational was regarded as sufficient to justify its rejection at the time.

The limits of this paper will not allow me to follow the gradual progress of the educational movement. Legislative action was taken, boards of education were established, and a modification of a national system established, and a great deal of good was done under the Public Schools Act of 1866. In 1875 a general impression began to prevail that further legislation was desirable, and in 1880 the present Public Schools Act passed into law.

The dimensions this department has assumed I have before briefly stated. It has brought a good sound education almost to the door of every child in the Colony, and compels parents and guardians to send children to school. It has placed higher education within the reach of every one, so that Mr. Huxley's simile has

been fairly accomplished, viz., "That a system of education, to be perfect, should resemble a ladder which, placed with its foot in the gutter, should reach to the University." All the greatest statesmen the Colony has produced have been imbued with the same patriotic desire of giving a good education to the masses, and the names of Wentworth, Cowper, Martin, Parkes, and Robertson will be handed down to posterity and blessed by future millions. "Surely this people have seen a great light."

In politics, the history of the Australian Colonies demonstrates the possibility of a people governed in an arbitrary and despotic manner, rapidly changing into a self-governing and democratic one without rebellion or bloodshed. It is true that during the governorship of Captain Bligh his atrocities and oppression weighed so heavily upon the people that they urged the military commandant to place the Governor under arrest, but this was done in the quietest and most loyal manner, and under the English flag. This has already been referred to. Governor Bligh was succeeded by a most humane and upright man, nevertheless the governing system was the same, and although in the West Indies, Canada, and in other Colonies the elective franchise had been introduced, there was no semblance of freedom in New South Wales. Without freedom there can be little progress, and for many years, although so favoured in soil and climate, New South Wales remained under the poisonous influence of an arbitrary government. The energy of a people who have no rights and privileges is soon sapped, or altogether destroyed, and the masses care little to own property when it can be unjustifiably invaded, or to live in a country where their personal liberty may be interfered with. It cannot, therefore, be wondered at, that during these dark days little progress was made in developing the resources of the Colony.

After thirty-six years, however, there came a change, for the liberty of the Press and trial by jury were conceded, and the principle of religious equality made law in 1836, and we now find that an irresistible movement is in operation for complete freedom, which never relaxed its exertions until the Constitution was granted in 1853, giving New South Wales absolute political liberty and self-government under Her Majesty Victoria, Queen of Great Britain and Ireland.

In 1817, at Sydney, the first Australian banking institution was founded, with a capital of £20,000; but in New South Wales alone in 1884 the paid-up capital in the various banks was £8,960,000, with reserve and undivided profits equal to £4,771,005, making a