312 EDUCATION 



insuring their general attendance, and, secondly, because 

 the entrusting of compulsor}^ powers to Town Councils and 

 Boards of Guardians would render existing schools of greater 

 utility, with the least cost to ratepayers. The Council 

 expressed its opinion that the provisions of the Bill should be 

 relaxed in order to allow a child of nine years of age who has 

 made 250 attendances to go to work during the same year ; 

 and that all restrictions as to the payment of grants fairly 

 earned in efficient public elementary schools should be 

 removed, and payment by results be thus secured. The 

 amendment to the Bill giving power to localities* to dissolve 

 School Boards was approved. This amendment was retained 

 in the Bill as it reached the Statute Book, but some of the 

 other proposals of the Council were not adopted. 



In December, 1877, a Committee was appointed to confer 

 with Professor Tanner, of the Science and Art Department, 

 respecting the advantages offered by the Government for 

 the instruction of farmers' sons in agricultural science. The 

 Chairman of this Committee was Mr. Pickering Phipps, M.P. 

 They presented their report to the Council in March, 1878, 

 in which they stated 



That for upwards of twenty years previous to 1876 the advan- 

 tages of the Government grant in aid of science teaching, amount- 

 ing in the year 1876 to 44,000, was exclusively enjoyed by urban 

 and manufacturing interests. A very large number of schools 

 have been established in towns, at which art and science instruc- 

 tion has been obtained at a very small cost by young persons 

 preparing to engage in manufacturing and other industrial 

 pursuits. In 1876 the number of schools having science classes 

 under qualified teachers was 1426, having 58,000 pupils and 

 students, and 33,000 were examined. 



The money grant was expended (1) in fees to the teachers at 

 certain sums per head for the pupils and students who passed 

 the examinations of the Department ; (2) in sums in aid of local 

 exhibitions and scholarships held by pupils for a term of years ; 

 (3) in sums paid in aid of travelling expenses of teachers attend- 

 ing lectures ; (4) in grants toward the purchase of apparatus ; 

 and (5) in grants in aid of the erection or adaptation of buildings 

 for the purpose of science schools. 



Early in 1876 the Comrnittee of Council on Education decided 

 to place agriculture on an equal footing with the other great 

 industries of the nation, and accordingly provided a section for 

 the principles of agriculture, for encouraging and stimulating 



