ABSTRACT
One of the instructions given to the first Governor of New South Wales, Captain Arthur Phillip RN, who settled the colony in 1788, was to set aside land to support a schoolmaster. Early attempts to provide education in the new colony, however, were hampered by lack of teachers and finance, and relied on whatever resources were available from state, church, and community enterprise. By the second half of the nineteenth century, the various early schemes for education, including state support to some religious schools, had extended primary education to many parts of the country, but had proven unequal to the task of bringing adequate education to most children.
