1. The strength and average height of the lads under instruction.

2. The limits of their powers of working, for it must be observed that, where a small piece of work can be done by a boy with entirely satisfactory results, a very large piece will probably prove quite beyond his powers.

3. Large work means large waste and greater expense. The accommodation in manual training rooms must be increased or the number of the boys diminished if the work to be done is very large, either alternative being very undesirable.

In preparing the course, the exercises must be designed with a view to bringing out very clearly in each one some peculiarity in the use of a tool.

The exercises are intended to cover, as far as possible, the main tool operations.

They need not be performed exactly as given in the course, but if any one is departed from, great care should be taken to substitute another at least equally useful.

The models are interspersed between the exercises, and it is not by any means necessary to take them all. The teacher must use a wise discretion in giving a boy a model within his power, but by no means below it.

The models should be the indication of skill attained in making the exercises, and should in themselves give further improvement. Almost invariably the models will be found to contain preceding exercises in a slightly more difficult form, so that, in addition to testing a boy's capabilities, fresh instruction is imparted.

After a very little instruction has been given, the difference in the ability of the boys in the class will demand the teacher's discernment in the selection of suitable models for them all. For this reason alternative models have been introduced in several parts of the course.

One of the great aims of manual instruction - the fostering of the power of construction - is attained by the making of models. To keep boys continually working at exercises, with no opportunity of putting their knowledge to practical application, is discouraging to them, and they are apt to lose that enthusiasm for the instruction which they usually possess in so marked a degree.

In designing models from familiar objects the utility should not necessarily he considered, for it is not required to convert the manual training room into a workshop or factory, but to develop the creative powers of the boys themselves, and any model which will serve this purpose may be accepted. Many of the models in the present course, however, happen to combine utility with instruction, and there is no objection to the useful being included, so long as it fulfils the more important requirement of being educational.

The chief considerations which should govern the designing of a model are tabulated as follows:

1. A good drawing lesson should be afforded.

2. If of a constructional nature, the joints must be scientifically made.

3. The proportions of the model, and of the parts of the whole, should be harmonious; and if it is of an artistic nature, the design should be graceful but not over elaborated.

4. The introduction of various coloured woods is highly recommended.

The opportunity for colour design, which is a vital consideration in art, is afforded by the jointing of different coloured woods. The use of many varieties gives practice in working wood of different textures and diverse peculiarities of many kinds, and the full value of timber as a material for manual training is thus obtained.

No instructor can err in varying the material used, as long as he does so intelligently and tastefully.

Most of the better-known woods are recommended to be used in the performance of exercises and models, but care should be taken to only use the expensive hard woods in small quantities, to obtain effective and harmonious colour design and yet give the required practice in working them.

5. The model should be attractive, in order to secure that earnestness in work which is so valuable.

The introduction of tools has been gradual - at first only one or two, and these to be well understood before any more are added. When a new tool is introduced, care has been taken in the arrangement of the course to enable the pupil to have constant use of it in each succeeding exercise or model till he is familiar with its characteristics, and then, and not till then, are further additions made.

In the selection of the tools only such as are typical of hand work have been introduced. Few tools, yet enough to give variety, are recommended; and the endeavour should be to learn as much as possible of the various uses of each tool, rather than to attain a slighter acquaintance with a great number.

The moulding planes, the plough, and other tools which are used chiefly by artisans are not included among those necessary for the manual training room. The axe, adze, and draw-knife have been omitted as being in the main unnecessary in this country, and of a highly dangerous character for young and frequently careless children.

Experience has shown that work in the elementary stages should involve only simple straight lines and flat surfaces. From these the exercises should gradually proceed to the addition of geometrical and freehand curves on flat surfaces, and the modelling of surfaces of a more or less complex nature. A number of simple carpenter's joints, and models showing their application, have been introduced to the course, as typical of mechanical construction.

The teacher of manual training must be a man with considerable technical ability, and a good draughtsman invariably. It will be found necessary on many occasions in the course of demonstration to execute the whole, or nearly the whole, of a model or exercise while lecturing on it, and here a teacher's manual dexterity is of great value.

A teacher, however able with tools, should keep in constant practice. In this connection it is well to observe that nothing is more fallacious than the popular opinion that a very little practice is necessary to give skill: a very great amount of hard work and continued effort is necessary to attain that rapid, easy style that is possessed by a skilled artisan. Continued acquaintance with the subject will serve to make this abundantly evident to the teacher.

It is not to be understood, however, that artisans, as being skilled workmen, would be good teachers, for in only very rare cases would this be true, and then only when the man fully realised what the ultimate objects of the teaching were, and possessed the ability to attain them.

School teachers, though in nearly every case more or less defective in practical skill, are so used to the management of children, and, as a general rule, are themselves so unbiassed before they are trained, that they will be found to produce the best average of manual training teachers. Where, however, a skilled workman has a thorough knowledge of the educational objects in view, and is, moreover, a skilful draughtsman, he is quite equal to a trained teacher as an instructor.