When will some new Australian poet rise
    To all the height and glory of his theme? 
    Nor on the sombre side for ever dream
    Our hare, baked plains, our pitiless blue skies,
    ’Neath which the haggard busbman strains his eyes
    To find some waterhole or hidden stream
    To save himself and flocks in want extreme! 
    This is not all Australia!  Let us prize
    Our grand inheritance!  Had sunny Greece
    More light, more glow, more freedom, or more mirth? 
    Ours are wide vistas bathed in purest air—­
    Youth’s outdoor pleasures, Age’s indoor peace—­
    Where could we find a fairer home on earth
    Which we ourselves are free to make more fair?

Just as years before my interest had been kindled in the establishment of our system of State education, and later in the University and higher education, so more recently has the inauguration of the Froebel system of kindergarten training appealed most strongly to my reason and judgment.  There was a time in the history of education, long after the necessity for expert teaching in primary and secondary schools had been recognised, when the training of the infant mind was left to the least skilled assistant on the staff of a school.  With the late Mr. J. A. Hartley, whose theory was that the earliest beginnings of education needed even greater skill in the teacher than the higher branches, I had long regarded the policy as mistaken; but modern educationists have changed all that, and the training of tiny mites of two or three summers and upwards is regarded as of equal importance with that of children of a larger growth.  South Australia owes its free kindergarten to the personal initiative and private munificence of the Rev. Bertram Hawker, youngest son of the late Hon. G. C. Hawker.  I had already met, and admired the kindergarten work of, Miss Newton when in Sydney, and was delighted when she accepted Mr. Hawker’s invitation to inaugurate the system in Adelaide.  Indeed, the time of her stay here during September, 1905, might well have been regarded as a special visitation of educational experts, for, in addition to Miss Newton, the directors of education from New South Wales and Victoria (Messrs. G. H. Knibbs and F. Tate) took part in the celebrations.  Many interesting meetings led up to the formation of the Kindergarten Union.  My niece, Mrs. J. P. Morice, was appointed hon. secretary, and I became one of the Vice-Presidents.  On joining the union I was proud of the fact that I was the first member to pay a subscription.  The free kindergarten has come to South Australia to stay, and is fast growing into an integral part of our system of education.  I have rejoiced in the progress of the movement, and feel that the future will witness the realization of my ideal of a ladder that will reach from the kindergarten to the University, as outlined in articles I wrote for The Register at that time.

CHAPTER XXIV.