VIEWS ON QUESTIONS OF THE DAY 243 



system. Notwithstanding great difficulties at the 

 outset, owing partly to opposition and prejudice, 

 which any new and untried scheme of the kind 

 would be sure to give rise to, as well as to the fact 

 that for about five months of the year the demand 

 for child-labour in the fields was at that time very 

 great, yet it was found, in spite of these and other 

 difficulties, that at the end of the first year, when 

 the children were assembled for examination by 

 her Majesty's Inspector, the average result, as 

 tested by the six standards, was i per cent, higher 

 than the average of all the schools of England and 

 Wales. In the second year one of the schools, and 

 that the worst, was closed for about four months, 

 and without a master ; but the average in the re- 

 sults gained in the other four schools, as compared 

 with that of all other public elementary schools in 

 England and Wales, was equal in reading, 12 J per 

 cent, higher in writing, 9 per cent, higher in arith- 

 metic, and 3 per cent, higher on the final average 

 of all subjects. These results must have borne a 

 still greater contrast to the state of things educa- 

 tional in Nunburnholme a quarter of a century 

 previously, when the village school was held in 

 one of the cottages. At that time the discipline at 

 least of the school could hardly be deemed satis- 

 factory, if, that is, we may judge from the fact that 

 it was customary for the master, who was a great 

 smoker, when he felt inclined for his pipe, to give 

 it to one of the elder boys, no doubt as a reward 

 for good, conduct, with instructions to take it to 



