CHAPTER VIII. 



EDUCATION. 



MR. CHARLES BATHURST, M.P., secretary of the 

 Central Land Association, in a paper read before 

 the Prevention of Destitution Conference last 

 year, said that in many parts of the country no man 

 under fifty was to be found who had any real skill in 

 laying a hedge, thatching a rick, using a scythe, shearing 

 a sheep, or milking a cow ; and he pointed out that estate 

 carpenters and woodmen were increasingly difficult to 

 obtain, though the wages offered to such men are generally 

 high. Not only is this undoubtedly so, but any countryman 

 who complains of it, whether he be the squire of the village 

 or the sixteen-shiliing labourer, ascribes it directly to the 

 existence of the village school. " Too much eddication" 

 has resulted in complete incapacity for the everyday 

 work of the country. It is a striking comment on the work 

 of our rural schools. 



The universal demand of the ordinary village is that the 

 boys should leave school earlier. The fact that this remedy 

 is rejected with unanimity by all our educationists (mostly 

 town-bred) throws upon them the onus of finding a remedy 

 of their own. And in the course of their search they will 

 discover that ignorance is not confined to the labourer, but 

 that a large proportion of the farmers have but a rudimentary 

 knowledge of the processes upon which their livelihood 

 depends. Many of them do not even realise the value of 

 education. In some districts, at any rate, quite three- 

 quarters of the working farmers farming 100 acres and under 

 have had no education at all other than that given at the 

 village school, teaching them to read, write, and do a little 

 simple arithmetic. Among this class of farmer there is an 

 enormous trade in compound manures, many of which are 

 sold at two or three times their value, because the purchasers 

 have no knowledge of what they ought to look for in the 



