AuGusT 29, 1912] 
NATURE 
675 
Natural History, and consisted of an exploration of 
the west coast of Mexico. In this connection, the 
fisheries steamer Albatross was used. Dr. J. N. Rose 
and Dr. Paul Bartsch represented the National 
Museum, collecting, respectively, the plants and 
molluscs from the portions of the coast visited. It 
was through this expedition that the National Zoo- 
logical Park secured two yearlings of the elephant 
seal, a very remarkable and interesting animal, which 
for many years had been supposed to be extinct. 
Mr. A. C. Bent, with a small party of ornitho- 
logists, made an excursion to the Aleutian Islands in 
search of further information for incorporation in a 
work on the life-histories of North American birds, 
which he is compiling for the institution. The 
members of this party were accorded many facilities 
by the Revenue Cutter Service of the Treasury De- 
partment, and particularly by the officers of the cutter 
Tahoma. Good series of land birds were obtained 
from nearly all the islands of the Aleutian chain, and 
many valuable facts concerning the distribution and 
habits of the land and water birds were recorded. 
Mention is made of the field work in Cambrian 
geology and palzontology in British Columbia, con- 
tinued by Dr. Charles D. Walcott, secretary of the 
institution, and his assistant, Mr. L. D. Burling. A 
remarkable collection of fossils was taken, and will 
be described in a future publication of the institution. 
This publication on explorations consists of fifty- 
one pages of text, together with many illustrations 
from original photographs taken at the scenes of the 
investigations, and forms publication No. 2087 of the 
Smithsoniar Miscellaneous Collections. 
SECONDARY AND TECHNICAL EDUCA- 
TION IN ENGLAND. 
HE annual volume of Statistics of Public Educa- 
tion in England and Wales, prepared by the 
Board of Education, is a valuable record of the posi- 
tion and progress of the various branches of elemen- 
tary, secondary and technical education receiving State 
aid or recognition, so far as these may be judged by 
numerical values. Part i. of the volume of Educational 
Statistics for 1910-1911, which has just been published 
as a Blue-book (Cd. 6338, price 2s. 6d.), contains more 
than five hundred pages of tables and other statistical 
information relating to education in England and 
Wales. From this mass of material we have ab- | 
stracted a few facts as to the position of English 
secondary schools, technical institutions, evening 
classes, and so on, in receipt of State grants. 
Secondary Schools. 
A secondary school, in the sense in which the term 
is used in the Board’s regulations, must offer to each 
of its pupils a progressive course of instruction (with 
the requisite organisation, curriculum, teaching staff, 
and equipment) in the subjects necessary to a good 
general education, upon lines suitable for pupils of an 
age-range at least as wide as from twelve to sixteen 
or seventeen. The provision, if any, made for pupils 
below the age of twelve must be similarly suitable, 
and in proper relation to the work done in the main 
portion of the school. The regulations also require 
that an adequate proportion of the pupils must remain 
at least four years in the school, and that an adequate 
proportion must also remain up to and beyond the age 
of sixteen; but these requirements may be reduced to 
three years and the age of fifteen respectively in the 
case of rural areas and’ small towns, where such a | 
course appears to the Board to be advantageous in 
view of local circumstances. The great public schools 
are not connected with the Board under these regula- | left school. 
NO. 2235, VOL. 89] 
tions, but with this exception most of the secondary 
schools in England are included in the subjoined 
table :— 
Numbers of Schools and Pupils. 
Number of schools : ea te 862 
Number of full time pupils under 12 
years ofage ... aa 25 . 36,989 
12 and under 16 years of age .. -» Y6,053 
16 * 18 5 *) LL555 
18 years of age and above 1,007 
145,009 
It will be seen from this table that more than 
go per cent. of the pupils in our State-aided secondary 
schools are under sixteen years of age, and one-quarter 
of the pupils are under twelve years of age In other 
words, a large part of the work of these secondary 
schools is of an elementary grade educationally, and 
not secondary in the sense of being a continuation 
of primary education. Of the total number of pupils 
in the secondary schools, 60 per cent. are from public 
| elementary schools, and 35 per cent. receive free educa- 
tion. When only Council schools are considered, it 
appears that nearly three-quarters of the pupils are 
| from public elementary schools and 4o per cent. pay 
no fees. 
Any bright boy or girl can proceed from the elemen- 
| tary school to the secondary school by the liberal 
provision of ‘free places,’ and they can often obtain 
maintenance grants in addition. There are now very 
few really promising children of working-class parents 
who fail to secure places in our secondary schools if 
they wish to do so. In many districts it is difficult to 
find among the pupils presented from elementary 
schools a sufficient number to justify their admission 
to secondary schools under the clause which provides 
for 25 per cent. free places for pupils from elementary 
schools, without having a low educational standard. 
In fact, free secondary education practically exists at 
present for every capable child of the elementary 
school class who desires to take advantage of it. 
The children enter as free-placers or by payment of 
low fees; but as most of them leave before they are 
fifteen years of age, they had better have remained in 
the elementary schools. Free secondary education 
may be accepted as a general principle, but the privi- 
lege should be accompanied by the responsibility of 
remaining at school until a full course has been 
completed, whether maintenance grants are provided 
from public funds or not. 
A rough indication of the attainments of pupils as 
measured by success in certain examinations is given 
in a table which appears for the first time in the 
present volume of statistics. The examinations 
selected are the preliminary examination for the 
teacher’s certificate, university senior locals, uni- 
versity matriculation, university senior school 
examination, university higher locals, and _ other 
examinations of like standard. The results of the 
inquiry are here summarised :— 
Attainments of Pupils leaving Secondary Schools. 
Number of pupils of 14 years of age and above 
who left during the year a 38,672 
Boys Girls Combined 
216 1 716 
78°84, 82°84 
Passed one of the above examinations 14°06 
Did not pass ,, “A 3 85°94 
In the table from which these numbers have been 
extracted we have for the first time a means of esti- 
mating the standard reached b¥ pupils leaving our 
State secondary schools. It appears that more than 
four-fifths of the pupils had not passed an examination 
of senior local or matriculation standard when they 
This is probably explained by the fact 
