118 Timehri. 
duly regarded in the provision that while managers had the righi of selection and 
appointment, they could only suspend teachers “ for sufficient cause,” each sus- 
pension to be subject to confirmation or cancellation by the Board of Education. 
The great misfortune in connection with this system was the constitution 
of the Board of Education, the ministers of religion who formed the majority 
wrecking not only the Board but the system by their ill-advised conduct. Indeed 
it was not statesmanlike to place the control of the education of the masses in the 
hands of men who were not sufficiently responsible on the one hand, or dignified 
on the other hand, to avoid wasting precious time and valuable opportunities 
in petty squabbling ; and the experience of the Government of those days does 
not seem to have served subsequent administrations. All that the Longden sys- 
tem needed was a revision of the too liberal payments for passes ; a remodelling 
of the personnel of the Board of Education, so as to have the representatives of 
the Government—the Combined Court—to form a distinct majority on it; and a 
gradual development of the school curriculum to suit the needs of an agricultural 
colony. However, the next Governor, Sir Henry Irving, rightly alarmed at 
the extravagance of the Board of Education as it existed, and at its competence, 
and duly observing the resolution of the Combined Court passed in June, 1881, 
declaring the amount spent on education as extravagant and without adequate 
results, set to work to remedy the evils. A drastic remedy was needed, but not 
the one Governor Irving applied, even though the expenditure on education 
exceeded $150,000 out of a revenue just above $2,000,000. 
In 1882 the Board of Education was abolished, and the Inspector of Schools was 
charged with its functions. The Irving Code destroyed teachers’ certificate 
salaries, the salaries of pupil teachers, and grants for building and furnishing 
schools ; and substituted a capitation grant of $4, $5 or $6 on the estimated 
average attendance to be adjusted at the end of the school year, and a bonus 
varying from $1 to $4 for each child in average attendance according to the per- 
centage of full passes in Reading, Writing, and Arithmetic. This Code continued 
with some minor modifications, and at first substantially reduced the colony's 
contribution to the cost of elementary education ; but soon its defects led to a 
very substantial increase again without corresponding efficiency, and it was re- 
placed in 1890 by that of Sir Charles Bruce, Lieutenant-Governor, who had had 
considerable experience in these matters as Director of Public Instruction in 
Ceylon. Once more Certificates Classes were paid for, the new rates being 
$240, $180, and $96 for Ist, 2nd and 3rd Class Certificates respectively. 
The rest of the State contribution was made to depend on the results of 
examinations—a most pernicious system, and more so, as the examiners have 
had also to administer the grants and to see that they have been kept within 
reasonable limits. This is the system, with some modifications it is true, obtaining 
up to the present time, and which is calling and has been calling, for all these years, 
for a most radical change. The Inspector of Schools is placed in a most odious 
position, and really can do no good for the colony under such a vicious system ; 
the community does not get the class of individuals it requires to be the “ makers 
of the rising generations” ; the pupils are merely regarded by the average teachers 
from their monetary value on the days of examination ; and the colony has 
not had reared for it inhabitants of good character, well-ordered minds, intelli- 
