November 25, 1920] 



NATURE 



421 



and may invite it or him to take it up at the Depart- 

 ment's cost. 



And so, while the Department maintains^and, in 

 my view, must maintain — that fishery investigations 

 are primarily its concern, and that it must have, so 

 to speak, a first call upon State funds available for 

 such research, its policy is to encourage every com- 

 petent worker in the field ; to procure adetjuate 

 financial support for every institution which is giving 

 its attention seriously to such researches and is so 

 placed as to be in a position to prosecute them success- 

 fully ; and to work in the closest and most cordial 

 ccM>peration with them without seeking in any degree 

 to limit their independence. 



We are proud to represent the greatest fishing 

 industry that the world has ever seen, and we are 

 determined, if possible — and the possibility depends 

 largely upon the measure of support we can secure 

 from a nation amazingly ignorant of, and indifferent 

 to, this all-important industry — to make Great Britain 



lead the world, not only in the practice of fishing, but 

 also in the scientific studies upon which the future 

 prosperity of the industry must depend. We have 

 established close co-operation with our colleagues in 

 Scotland and Ireland, and, I hope and believe, friendly 

 relations with the scientific workers of those institu- 

 tions which have established a reputation in this field 

 of research and the continued prosperity and eflSciencv 

 of which it is our hope to secure. .And while we seeJc 

 to lead the world, we seek also to secure the co- 

 operation of the Governments of those other nations 

 which exploit the harvest of the sea ; for we have no 

 monopoly of the fishing-grounds, though our position 

 is most favourable for their exploitation, and what- 

 ever measures may be devised by science for the 

 maintenance or increase of the harvest can be 

 effective onlv if thev are carried out by international 

 consent, and wisely directed to the attainment of the 

 object which forms the motto of the International 

 Council : " The rational exoloitation of the sea. " 



Scholarships and Free Places in Secondary Schools.* 



AN interesting and important Departmental Report 

 upon the above subject was published on 

 October 25 by the Board of Education. The inquir>- 

 was befi^n a year ago at the instance of Mr. 

 H. A. L. Fisher, President of the Board, and the 

 Committee appointed was comprised of representa- 

 tives of the Board, of the local education authorities, 

 of persons engaged in elementary and secondary 

 schools, and of others interested in the question. 

 Some sixty-si.x individual witnesses were examined, 

 including officers of the Board of Education and of 

 local authorities, as well as teachers and others, 

 representing in all thirty organisations wholly or 

 partly concerned with education. The Committee 

 was directed to inquire into the existing arrangements 

 for the award by local authorities of scholarships 

 tenable at secondary schools or institutions of higher 

 education other than universities or institutions for 

 the training of teachers, and into the provision of 

 free places under the regulations of the Board of 

 Education, and to make recommendations thereon 

 with respect to the improvement of such arrange- 

 ments so as to bring the facilities of higher education 

 within the reach of all classes of the population and 

 with special regard to the migration of pupils from 

 one school area to another. 



The report deaN concisely with the history of 

 scholarship provision at the instance of local authori- 

 ties, and shows that the scholarships awarded by 

 them tenable at secondary schools had risen from 

 2500 in iS<)j5 to more than 12,000 in 1006, and if there 

 be included those awarded to intending teachers, to 

 more th.^n 23,500. The next important step with the 

 ohjei t of facilitating the transfer of suitable pupils 

 from elementary to secondary schools was taken bv 

 the Board of Education in iqo7, whereby, as a condi- 

 tion of qualifying for the hitjher rate of grant, 

 secondary schools were rpquire<l to .T<lmit a certain 

 percenf.Tge of pupils (ordinarily 21; per cent, of the 

 previou's year's admissions) from public elementary 

 schools, subject to an entrance tost of prnfuirnrv. 

 These wf re stvled " free.place scholars. " 



The immediate efTert of these regulati. 

 inrre.isc' the niiiiiher of punils receiving free tuition 

 in serond.'irv s< lifiols, including those arranged for by 

 local authorities, from 24 to 27 per rent. In iQit-12 

 the total number of pupils receiving free tuition in 

 such schools had risen to 32 per cent., the actual 



1. Report of th^ DffTMktlmcntiil Commtlt** on S^bolarthtp* ftfid frM 

 Plat:**. Pp. vi '»-«>. ( (.ofwion : H. M. SixSofxry OiBc*.) Prin 9^. nM. 



NO. 2665, VOL. 106] 



figures being 52,583, of whom 49,130 had been in 

 public elementary schools, and of this number 38,009 

 owed their exemption from fees to the scholarship 

 and free-place arrangements of the local authorities. 

 .\t the present time in 961 grant-aided secondary 

 schools in England with some 246,000 pupils enrolled, 

 the number oif " free places " held amounts to 72,386, 

 or about 30 per cent., made up of 53,460 awarded by 

 local authorities, 16,548 by school governors, and Z378 

 by other endowments. 



It is now the duty of the local authorities, made 

 statutory by the Education .\ct of 1918, to make pto- 

 vision for the means of higher education for all 

 children capable of profiting thereby. It is esti- 

 mated on the basis of 20 per tooo of the total 

 population of England and Wales that there should 

 be at least 720,000 duly qualified children in the 

 secondary schools, or more than double the present 

 number. The grave defect of the present system is, 

 the report states, that exemption from fees alone does 

 not, by reason of the poverty of many parents, enable 

 their children to take advantage of the benefits of 

 higher education, or if they do they are quite unable 

 to keep. them at school beyond fourteen years of ape 

 for the full period of secondary education. It is 

 therefore recommended that maintenance allowances, 

 including all incidental school charges, should be made 

 available for all free-place pupils who are in need of 

 them. Whilst fav.wrable to the abolition of all fees in 

 grant-aided secondary schools, the Committee scarcelv 

 considers the time ripe for so drastic a change, and 

 therefore suggests as a tentative measure the raising 

 of the percentage of free places from 25 to 40 per rent, 

 of the admissions. The age of admission of free-place 

 pupils should be between eleven and twelve, determined 

 upon bv an examination in English and arithmetic, 

 followed bv an oral examination. Free places should 

 be awarded for the full school course, secured bv 

 agreement with the parents, and where a pupil 

 migrates to another area he should lie entitle to 

 continue his e<lucafion unon the same terms. It is 

 recommended that children who have not been 

 nreviouslv educated in public elementary schools shall 

 Iw eligible as free-place nupils provided that the parents 

 show inability to pay fees for higher education. 



The report \n signed by all the members of the 

 Committee, subject to certain reservations on th# 

 part of a few members. It concludes with n valuable 

 summary of stalislirs bearing upon various aspect* 

 of higher .Tnd spei i.ilised r'dur.Ttion, 



