FINANCIAL ASPECTS OF SECONDARY EDUCATION. 1103 
extended in this direction? In earlier days grants of land were 
made to various religious denominations for school purposes, but 
now that secondary schools are plentiful, this method of State 
assistance is, perhaps, obsolete, at any rate in the large centres of 
population. Direct money grants are bestowed upon “Queensland” 
Grammar Schools, the least ‘of them obtaining £1,000 per annum 
from Government, while the State safeguards its own interests by 
nominating about half of the governing Trustees. A more direct 
control is assumed by Government in the case of the State High 
Schools, which, however, charge fees covering a large proportion 
of the necessary expenditure. Each colony, again, has a system 
of State scholarships, whereby the ablest children in the State 
primary schools areenabled to continue their education in secondary 
schools. In Queensland these scholars naturally proceed to the 
Grammar Schools ; in New South Wales they may enter the State 
High Schools, or Sydney Grammar School, which has hitherto 
received an annual Government grant (unfortunately diminishing). 
In Victoria the poverty of the Treasury has driven the Government 
to certain astute expedients which relieve the State of all burden, 
and yet secure to it the credit of providing the much-vaunted 
‘educational ladder” to the University. By the new system the 
State nominally offers scholarships tenable at the large Denomi- 
national Schools, open amongst others to State scholars, the 
scholarships being at the expense of the schools concerned. The one 
advantage thus obtained by the schools is that these State scholars, 
at the end of their school course, are eligible for State bursariest 
tenable at the University, such bursaries, by another stroke of 
official cunning, being given at the expense of the University, by 
being deducted from the annual Government subsidy. 
Next, how far have secondary schools been assisted by private 
beneficence? Speaking generally, it may be said that the Denomi- 
national Schools have heen founded by private subscription, but 
that in most cases a large debt still remains upon the buildings, 
the interest being, of course, a first charge upon ordinary revenue. 
One school has a debt of £25,000, another of £12,000, two more 
of £10,000 each ; and probably a long and depressing list might 
easily be made if information were collected. Endowments are 
very rare, and coniparatively trifling. Most large schools have a 
system of valuable scholarships, entirely due to private generosity ; 
but while these are a valuable incentive to pupils, they in no way 
lighten the burden of finance, or help to increase educational 
efficiency . Thus the only source of ordinary school revenue is the 
fees of pupils, and it is obvious that all influences that tend to 
lower the scale of fees, or diminish the number of pupils, are so 
far hostile to educational efficiency. The demand for secondary 
education, of course, fluctuates with the general prosperity of the 
community, and a time of commercial depression, such as that of 
