52 REPORTS ON THE STATE OF SCIENCE.—1918. 
up the 25 per cent., or they could keep their scheme for county scholars 
intact and add another for free-placers to meet the Board’s demands. _ 
The returns show that, in the area of at least two-thirds of those making 
returns, whether Counties or County Boroughs, the former scheme has 
been adopted. Free-place holders and county scholars are indistin- 
guishable. Only in a few instances do the returns show whether this 
has meant the combination of the advantages of both schemes. The 
lengthened tenure is obligatory, but it may be balanced by dropping 
the allowance previously given to county scholars for travelling, &c., 
the Board’s scheme demanding merely freedom from tuition and 
entrance fees. Some indication of what has happened may be gained 
from the name retained; where all are called county scholarships the 
incidental advantages often remain; where all are called free places 
they carry as a rule nothing but the minimum requirements of the 
Board. The existence of two schemes side by side is certainly con- 
fusing and must add to the trouble of administration. 
2. Travelling expenses are paid to holders of free places in 26 
Counties out of 36; in the County Boroughs they are apparently 
considered unnecessary. 
Maintenance allowances of some kind are paid in 61 per cent. of 
the areas, but they are very small indeed, usually confined to ‘ neces- 
sitous ’ cases, and sometimes to those over 14 years of age. County 
Councils seem slightly more generous than County Boroughs, but this is 
probably due to the factor of distance, which makes some contribution 
to the cost of dinner at school imperative. Few allowances rise to a 
figure beyond that needed to cover this single expense. In areas where 
there is a double scheme of county scholarships and free places the 
allowances for travelling and maintenance are frequently confined to 
the former, who represent the pick of the candidates in the examination. 
As the capacity to do well in an examination bears some relation to the 
relative poverty and consequent ill-feeding of the child, this results in 
the poorer children obtaining the least help; where travelling expenses 
are not covered the free places are not really open to the country 
Jabourer’s child. 
3. The returns as to ability of holders of free places compared with 
other pupils are rather indefinite. Of those who replied to the question 
about 40 per cent. of the County Boroughs and about 30 per cent. of 
the Counties consider the free-place holder above the ordinary fee- 
paying pupil in ability. 
4. Very few of those who sent returns have any belief in Higher 
Elementary Schools, 8 among the Counties and 5 among the County 
Boroughs alone holding that some of the children might do better there 
than i secondary schools. There is, however, a considerable body 
of opinion that Junior Technical Schools would be useful in this way. 
This is especially the case among the Counties. 
The chief trouble is the shortness of the school life of the secondary 
scholar, and this makes some of the officials think that three years in a 
technical school would be a better investment. Where a full four or 
five years’ course is taken most of the returns are that the results are 
satisfactory. 
