Under the new organization it is impossible to treat the classes in science and art separately from the schools of which they form an integral part, and consequently the following table, presented in the report of the board of education, repeats statistics already given under the head of secondary schools, and those which follow present further details respecting evening schools.

Evening schools. The present regulations for evening schools, as explained in the official report, apply to the class of schools formerly conducted in accordance with the regulations of the science and art department, and continuation schools regulated by the elementary school code.

The former included very advanced classes held in important technical institutions as well as some elementary classes held in smaller towns and villages. The latter were most typically represented by the village evening school, giving instruction of a somewhat elementary nature.

The following statistics show the classification of evening classes and students by courses of instruction:

Division I. (a) General or preparatory in character; (b) more specific or more advanced..

Division V. Home industries..

Division IV. Science, including instruction in the scientific principles underlying certain trades or groups of trades.

As individual students in some cases attended for instruction in more than one subject of a division, the number of individual students in each division is less than is here shown--e. g., in Division II the number of individual students in respect of whom a grant was paid was 48,536, and similarly the number of individual science students was 125,704.

No grant is paid on account of a student who does not attend a class for at least fourteen hours. Students whose attendance at any class fell short of that limit are not included in the numbers here given.

The following table gives a comparison of the number of students who attended, and at the same time indicates their age and sex:

The efficiency of the school is tested by inspection, with or without notice, and in subjects of science or art an additional test is afforded by the annual examinations of the board.

The evening schools which earned a grant during the year ending July 31, 1903, numbered 5,624.

ACTION OF LOCAL AUTHORITIES IN RESPECT TO "HIGHER EDUCATION.

The foregoing survey pertains to schools of an advanced grade in England and Wales and the relations established between them and the board of education. The action of the central Government, however, in respect to education is very general. It is intended to stimulate and supplement local effort, never to supplant it; hence the most important part of the current record of education, whether elementary or higher, relates to the action of local authorities (county and municipal councils).

By reference to the conspectus of the education law of 1902 (p. 801, par. 4) it will be seen that the educational functions of the local authorities, excepting that of levying a school tax, may be delegated to education committees. Reports from several of the larger cities show that strong committees have been formed and have applied themselves earnestly to the task of ascertaining the conditions to be dealt with as a preliminary to future developments. The investigation has been particularly thorough in Sheffield and Liverpool, the educational committees of both these cities having secured the services of Mr. Michael E. Sadler to aid them in this stage of their work.

As regards elementary education the situation in the cities named was well known from the reports of the former school board, and consequently the investigations authorized by the newly formed education committees related to the province of secondary and higher education as it devolves upon the local authorities under the new law. The results of Mr. Sadler's investigations are embodied in two reports,' which set forth in an exhaustive manner the existing provision for education above the elementary stage in the cities named and sub

Formerly chief of the division of special inquiries and reports, department of education; at present professor of the history and administration of education, Victoria University, Manchester.

City of Sheffield, Education Committee Report on Secondary and Higher Education, by Michael E. Sadler, M. A. Oxon, Hon. LI. D. Columbia. City of Liverpool Education Committee Report on Secondary Education in Liverpool, including the Training of Teachers for Public Elementary Schools. Idem.

mit recommendations as to the means of improving, extending, and equalizing this provision.

In considering these reports the purpose here is chiefly to show what they disclose relative to the provision for secondary education and the proposed increase of such provision.

In his general discussion of this subject Mr. Sadler adhered to the views embodied in the Government regulations already cited as to the age limits and types of secondary education. The three types are characterized by him in the Sheffield report as follows:

(1) That in which mathematics and physical science predominate; (2) that in which (with due provision for mathematical teaching) the linguistic discipline predominates, living languages (or one living and one ancient) being taken as the chief, though of course not the only, vehicles of instruction; and (3) that in which the linguistic discipline still forms the backbone of this course of training, but is imparted for the most part through Latin and Greek, though with some regard to one modern foreign language, as well as to other subjects, like mathematics. In the case of boys (though this is due to historical reasons rather than to the nature of the case) the three types of curricula outlined above are generally found in courses of different duration. The first-named type is usually provided in a compact four-year course, fitted in between the ages of 12 and 16. The second type usually, though not always, begins at 10 years of age, or even earlier, and extends itself to about 17. The third type, in its highest perfection, occupies an even longer period. It begins (though not necessarily or always) at 10 years of age, or even earlier, and runs on to 18 or 19. In the case of girls the forms of secondary school curricula are more flexible and variable than in the case of those provided for boys. But, nevertheless, with due regard to the need for giving girls a lighter burden of work during the critical years of their physical growth, the types of their secondary school curricula do approximate to those provided for boys. The first type, less severely but still markedly mathematical and scientific, tends to be a fouryear course. The second (by far the most usual) is a longer course, beginning at 10 years of age, or earlier, and extending to 17, or later. The third (or fully classical) type is very rare in the case of girls, and indeed hardly has a separate existence, but is found here and there as a small subdivision of a larger school. It carries on its work till the girls are 18 or 19 years of age.

SECONDARY SCHOOLS OF SHEFFIELD.

From Mr. Sadler's report we learn that Sheffield, with a population of 426,686, had at the time of his investigation—

two chief secondary schools for boys, namely, the Royal Grammar School and the Wesley College. At the former nearly all the boys are day scholars; at the latter boarders form rather more than one-sixth of the whole. (Preparatory departments are attached to both institutions, and there is one other private preparatory school for boys only--that of the Misses Whitfield.)

In both the grammar school and the Wesley College linguistic discipline is the backbone of the curriculum, though at each school some science is taught through the greater part of the school (at the grammar school more than at Wesley College) and a good deal of mathematics. But the grammar school, above the middle forms, branches into two different curricula-one which is predominantly mathematical or scientific, and one which is mainly classical. At the Wesley College, in the middle school one curriculum is taken practically by all boys; in the upper school choice is made between Latin and practical chemistry and between Greek and German. It should be added that many boys are sent away from Sheffield to boarding schools at a distance."

a The Schoolmaster's Year Book, 1904, gives the following particulars with respect to the two schools named above: The Royal Grammar School has accommodation for 191 boys (including 4 boarders) ages 6 to 18. The annual fee ranges from £10 10s. to £13 10s. There are scholarship funds awarded upon competitive examination, which lessen the expense for the successful candidate.

The Wesley College has accommodation for 209 boys (including 35 boarders) ages 7 to 19. The annual fees for day pupils range from 9 to 15 guineas; for boarders, from 42 to 48 guineas.

The grammar school is an endowed school, administered, as the report explains

under a scheme of the charity commissioners. It has a governing body, upon which the city council and other local bodies are represented. It has received a grant of £600 per annum from the city technical instruction committee. The scheme provides that religious opinions, or attendance or nonattendance at any particular form of religious worship, shall not in any way affect the qualification of any person for being a member of the governing body. There is a conscience clause. The scheme provides for not less than fifteen foundation scholarships, of which one-half must be awarded to boys who are, or for not less than three years have been, scholars in any of the public elementary schools in the school district of Sheffield. The head master is required by the provision of the scheme to be a graduate of some university in the United Kingdom or in some colony or dependency thereof, or to have such other qualification as may be fixed by any regulation of the governors, approved by the charity cominissioners (responsibility transferred to the board of education). By virtue of the scheme the head master has the sole power of appointing and may at pleasure dismiss all assistant masters. He receives a fixed yearly stipend, with a capitation fee, for each boy in the school, fixed on a scale appointed by the governors. The regulations can not be changed without the sanction of the board of education, hence the school is to a certain extent under public supervision. The Wesley College is a proprietary institution with denominational affiliations. The two institutions are types of the best classes of secondary schools throughout the country.

The city has also a high school for girls, conforming very closely both in the subject-matter and the duration of its course to the second type of secondary schools. This is one of the schools established by the Girls' Public Day School Company (Limited). It accommodates 238 pupils. The fees, which are the same in all the schools of the company, are as follows: Entrance fee, 1 guinea; yearly fees, pupils 7 to 10 years of age, 9 guineas; 10 to 13 years, 12 guineas; 13 and upward, 15 guineas.

In the category of secondary schools in Sheffield Mr. Sadler includes also the "pupil teachers' center," which provides for the instruction of pupil teachers engaged in elementary schools.

The aim of the "center" is to secure for its pupils admission to a training college and to enable them to reach a standard of general attainment which will qualify them to profit by a normal course. The majority of the pupils are girls. Their ages range from about 15 upward. The classes are held in the evening as well as in the daytime, in order to meet the needs of the pupils who are working as pupil teachers in the elementary schools.

All other secondary schools in the city of Sheffield are strictly private schools, conducted for the profit and at the expense of the principal.

In view of the conditions so carefully investigated, Mr. Sadler declared that the most urgent demand for Sheffield was improvement in the secondary education provided for boys.

There is need [he says] for a secondary school, which should give the highest instruction in English, in classics, in mathematics, and in foreign languages, together with instruction in science. This school should train boys intended for professional careers and also for the higher posts in business. It should prepare for the universities. It should be able to give the best possible chance to boys of high mathematical or linguistic ability. The classes should be small. It should have a long course, extending from 10 (or 12) to 17, 18, or 19. It should be on the highest plane of intellectual efficiency, thoroughly well staffed, accommodated in a good building, well equipped with a library and apparatus, and carefully organized from the point of view of school games and those other forms of school activity which develop esprit de corps, give a good tone, and teach the virtues

of corporate life. Manual training should be encouraged throughout the school. The training of the hand helps to develop the brain. Great care should be taken to make the most of the average boy, but at least equal care is necessary to avoid sacrificing the interests of the specially clever pupils. With care these two objects can be successfully combined. The average boy can be helped forward and the brilliant boy can be given the special opportunities which he needs. But in order to combine these advantages the staff must be large and thoroughly efficient.

With help he adds], either the grammar school or the Wesley College could be raised to the level of complete efficiency described above.

Among the recommendations made by Mr. Sadler was that of the consolidation of the Royal Grammar School and the Wesley College as the best means of securing for Sheffield a secondary school of the highest type. This was suggested as a mere possibility, but the education committee have since reported that

thanks to the unselfish and public-spirited attitude of the governors of the grammar school, as well as to the broad-minded policy pursued by the Wesleyan authorities, the committee have been enabled to frame a scheme, which has been submitted to the board of education, embracing in its scope the purchase of Wesley College and grounds, covering 5 acres, and also of the grammar-school buildings and surrounding land; the adaptation of the Wesley College buildings to modern requirements, and the establishment therein of one strong secondary school of the highest type, to be the property of the municipality, supported by public funds and under effective public control. The scheme as submitted contemplates leaving the endowment of the grammar school in the hands of the governors, to be used for the purposes of higher education. The carrying out of that portion of the scheme which relates to the purchase of Wesley College has already been tacitly approved by the board of education, but difficulties have arisen in regard to other portions of the scheme, which it is hoped may ere long be adjusted, so that the whole plan may be proceeded with. It is confidently believed that the expenditure involved will be fully justified by the extremely important and far-reaching advantages to be gained by the city.

In addition to a secondary school of the highest type, Mr. Sadler noted, further, the need of a secondary school "to feed the technical school with a steady stream of well-educated lads of 16 years of age” and of a secondary school for girls "which will feed the pupil teachers' center with a steady stream of welleducated girls of 16 years of age." These two wants he believed might be met by a single secondary school of purely modern type, situated in a central part of the city.

The general character of the school is outlined as follows:

It should be a school with low fees-1s. a week, which (allowing for holidays) would be about £2 a year. It should be very well staffed with highly competent and well-trained teachers. No class should be allowed to contain more than 30 pupils. Individual work should be encouraged. The school should be in two divisions, one for boys and one for girls, with a different curriculum in each division, though many of the teachers might do work in both divisions, and, if the head master of the school thought well, both boys and girls might work together in some of the classes. There should be a large number of scholarships tenable at this school. These scholarships should give free education and be awarded for merit. The education committee would also, I think, do well to keep in hand a fund out of which further remission of fees could be privately made in deserving cases. From this fund small maintenance allowances should also be made when such addition to the scholarships was thought expedient, in view of special difficulty experienced by any parent in keeping without such aid his child at school throughout the course. Such a school would be mainly recruited from the public elementary schools. Pupils should be drafted to it from the elementary schools at or near their twelfth birthday. Earlier transference would injure the tone and intellectual standard of the elementary schools, would be incompatible with judicious selection for scholarships, and in the case of girls would involve the inconvenience, and even danger, of sending little children to school through crowded streets, often at