Jievieu of Revieire, 20Ji/06. 



Leading Articles. 



593 



PREMIUMS ON LARGE FAMILIES. 



The whirligig of time brings about strange re- 

 venges. Once large families and improvidence were 

 associated. Now national providence has set itself 

 to encourage large families. The American Review 

 of Reviews describes how Paris provides for the 

 housing of large families. France is said to be 

 flooded with literature just now on the vital subject 

 of the decreasing birthrate. It is pointed out that 

 at present taxes fall upon families according to their 

 size — the larger the family the larger the house and 

 the larger the taxation. The writer says that: — 



M. Bertillon maintains tliat each family sboald bav© not 

 lesa than three children— two to replace the father and 

 motlier. and a third to fill up any vacancy by death or 

 emigration. He also advocates lighteninK the taxes for 

 parents with large families; ' removing taxes altogether 

 from those with more than three children, and putting a 

 special tax upon maidens, bachelors and families without 

 any children at all. 



Already a pension of 46/- is given by the State for 

 each child over and above three children. Infant 

 mortality has been reduced from 28.2 to 22.1 for 

 every thousand. Organised effort has now come to 

 the help of the cradle: — 



All these conditions have led to the forming of several 

 philanthropic societies, made up of wealthy physicians, 

 bankers and patriots of rank and wealth of both sexes, 

 who have determined to provide exceptional accommoda- 

 tion for parents with large families. Foremost among 

 these societies comes the Soci^t§ des Logemenis pour 

 Families Nombreuses, whose name admirably expresses its 

 purpose. This society was formed under the patronage of 

 a millionaire physician. Dr. Broca, and M. Compel, presi- 

 dent of another very useful association, known as " I'Abri," 

 or " the Shelter," which provides a temporary aevlum for 

 the city's outcasts. 



A LARGE FAMILY HOUSED AT Is. 7d. A WEEK. 



This society has built in the Menilmontant Quar- 

 ter many blocks of admirable flats for the reception 

 only of large families. Each pile contains seventy- 

 five apartments, with rentals ranging from JQ4 to 

 £,\6 a year, and all the flats are perfect models of 

 what a healthy place of residence should be where 

 there are many small children. The architect has 

 arranged that every room, without exception, is thor- 

 oughly well lighted, with big cheerful windows ad- 

 mitting the sunlight : and broad balconies outside the 

 windows on every floor are provided, where children 

 can play in safety or bask in the sun. Before the 

 houses of the children came into being, parents with 

 large families had the same fate in Paris as in Lon- 

 don, walking the streets in vain quest for family 

 accommodation. But now: — 



Branch societies are inittiug up apartment houses, also 

 for very large families up to ten and twelve children, with 

 gardens as playgrounds for the little ones. The sites 

 chosen, however, will naturally be a little out of Paris, 

 in places where the price of land is not altogether pro- 

 hibitive. But the fact remains that France is so alive 

 to the " depopulation peril " that some of her foremost 

 citizens are building " Houses of the Children " and posi- 

 tively advertising for tenants with large families only. 



The rents barely pay the expenses of manage- 

 ment. 



IN NEW YORK ALSO. 



In America the same danger is being faced in the 

 same way. Houses of the children are to be erected 



in New York under the provisions of the million 

 dollar gift by Mr. Henry Phipps: — 



The cost of the first block will be about 225,000 dols. It 

 will have a frontage of 180 feet with two large archways 

 leading into courtyards ornamented with playing fotm- 

 tains. There will be a kindergarten in the cellar, accom- 

 modating 200 children, under competent teachers; rooms 

 for the storage of perambulators: garbage incineration 

 plants: roof-gardens; hysieuic laundries: heating ap- 

 paratus of the most modern kind, and large, bright rooms, 

 with a shower-bath for each family. 



THE NEW EDUCATION BILL. 



\ Fact Often Forgotten. 

 Lord Stanley, of Alderley, in the Nineteenth 

 Centurx, brings to light a fact that the man in the 

 street often overlooks. If the managers of volun- 

 tary schools are unable or unwilling to keep going 

 as public elementary schools or certified efficient 

 schools- 

 it is not competent for them to close tbeir schools. The.v 

 were pointedly reminded of this fact by the late Board ot 

 Education, who, in their memorandum of December 20th, 

 1902. stated: — 



" Trustees and managers have no power to close schools. 



■•i4) It is to be remembered that (except in the case of 

 such privately owned schools as are the absolute property 

 of the owner, and are subject to no trusts whatever) man- 

 agers and trustees of elementary schools usually hold the 

 school premises upon trust either themselves to carry on a 

 school therein or to permit it to be carried on. It ie, 

 therefore, n it open to eitlier body, or even to both bodies 

 acting together, to close the school as or when they please. 

 .\n ;vttemDt to close the school capriciously or for insuffi- 

 cient reasons may involve the consequences attendant on a 

 breach of trust. If trustees or managers are unable or un- 

 willing to carry on the school, it is their duty at once to 

 apply to the Board of Mucation who for this purpose may 

 exercise the powers formerly possessed by the Cliarity Com- 

 missioners) to be relieved of their trust or for direction in 

 the matter." 



Thus, should they close their schools, the Board of Edu- 

 cation is vested with the powers of the Charity Commis- 

 sioners to transfer the building to other persons ready 

 and willing to carry out this trust, or the principal part 

 of it. And this can be done by the transfer of the build- 

 ing to the public authority, although that authority cannot 

 give denominational teaching. It may. therefore, be taken 

 for gr:inted that if rate aid were withdrawn, and still 

 more if Parliamentary aid were withdrawn or brought back 

 to the ijroportion it bore when nearly all these schools 

 were built, the managers would have no choice but to 

 transfer them-to the local authorities. 



TXJRD STANLEYS SUGGESTIONS. 



Lord Stanley, whose position as leader of the late 

 London School Board dem,^nds attention, thus sum- 

 marises the points which he thinks essential in com- 

 ing educational legislation: — 



(1) All ordinary day-schools aided by the rates must he 

 under complete public management, as '■ provided " schools, 



'2) The whole of the teaching during school hours must 

 be by responsible teachers of the schools appointed by the 

 local Education Authority. 



(3) There shall be no interference by the State directing 

 the giving of religiotis or Scripture teaching in the school. 



f4) In every school district there shall be a supply of 

 provided schools within the reach of all. 



(5) Where the geographical conditions make it expedient 

 to have more than one school in a ueighbourhoo'd, that 

 school shall be a provided school, and no other school 

 shall receive State aid. 



(5) Schools held in trust tor elementary education shall 

 be transferred to the local authority if the existing 

 managers fail to conduct them as efficient day-schools. 



(7) Non-provided schools transferred to the local authority 

 shall be kept in repair by the local authority, but the 

 former managers shall retain the Tise of them on Sunday 

 and at such other times as they are not needed for public 

 education. 



(8) On two occasions a week, either at the beginning or 

 end ot the school session, the schoolroom shall be at the 

 disposal of persons desiring to give religious teaching to 

 scholars desiring to receive it; but this attendance sliall 



