328 EDUCATION 



In March, 1900, the new Education Code was issued, and 

 this gave a wider latitude to local authorities in the choice 

 of their curricula. In the following month the Board of 

 Education issued a circular calling the attention of managers 

 and teachers of rural elementary schools to the importance of 

 making the education in the village school more consonant 

 with the environment of the scholars than had been the case 

 hitherto, and especially of encouraging the children to gain an 

 intelligent knowledge of the common things which surrounded 

 them in the country. The opinion to which the Council had 

 given expression was thus soon endorsed by the new 

 Department. 



The Government Education Bill of 1902 gave rise to several 

 discussions during the year, but the interest of the Chambers 

 was mainly centred upon the question of cost, which is dealt 

 with in the chapter on Local Taxation. 



In 1902 the Council appointed a special committee to con- 

 sider the question of rural depopulation, under the chairman- 

 ship of Mr. M. D'Arcy Wyvill. Their report was presented 

 and adopted in May, 1903, and among other things recom- 

 mended 



" instruction in schools of a more practical kind, which would 

 interest the young in rural life, would tend to increase the number 

 of skilled labourers, to retain on the land the brighter and more 

 active young men of labouring families, and to keep up an 

 adequate supply of the best type of labour for the large farms." 



This Committee had considerable difficulty in arriving at 

 any conclusions acceptable to the w r hole of its members, and 

 it was the draft submitted by Mr. F. A. Channing (afterwards 

 Lord Channing of Wellingborough) which ultimate^ brought 

 the Committee together. 



In 1904 the Education Code for that year was the subject 

 of debate by the Chambers, but this question is also dealt 

 with under the head of Local Taxation. 



In December, 1906, Lord Barnard raised in the House of 

 Lords the question of agricultural education, and Earl Carring- 

 ton (President of the Board of Agriculture) promised to appoint 

 a Departmental Committee on the subject. In February, 



