584 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XVIII. No. 4G2. 



wholly neglected, owing to the fact that the 

 grants earned depended on the results of 

 examination, and so all the school time Avas 

 devoted to grant earning. 



Mr. Acland, at this time minister for 

 education, was made aware of this neglect 

 to give a good general education, and as I 

 was at that time responsible for science in- 

 struction I Avas directed to draw up a 

 scheme for reorganizing these schools and 

 forcing a general as well as scientitie edu- 

 cation to be carried out. Baldly the scheme 

 abolished almost entirely* payments on re- 

 sults of examination, and the rate of grant 

 depended on inspection and attendance. 

 Further, a certain minimum number of 

 hours had to be given to literary subjects, 

 and another minimum to science instruc- 

 tion, a great deal of it being practical and 

 having to be carried out in the 'Avorkshop.' 

 The payments for science instruction were 

 to be withheld unless the inspector Avas 

 satisfied that the literary part of the educa- 

 tion was given satisfactorily. 



The scheme Avas accepted and promul- 

 gated whilst the Royal Commission on Sec- 

 ondary Education was sitting, and, if I 

 may be alloAved to say so, Mr. Acland 's 

 tenure of office Avould be long remembered 

 for this innovation alone, since in it he took 

 a Avide departure from the traditional 

 methods of the department and created a 

 class of secondary school AA^hich differed 

 totally from those then existing. Needless 

 to say the scheme Avas not received with 

 favor on all sides, more especially by those 

 who thought that serious damage would be 

 done to secondary schools by the com- 

 petition from this new development of sec- 

 ondary education. I am not ashamed to 

 say that the disfavor shoAvn on some sides 

 made me rejoice, as it indicated that a 

 move had been made in the right direc- 

 tion. At first it was principally the 

 higher-grade board schools that came un- 



* Within the next four years they will entirely 



der the scheme, and in the first year there 

 Avere tAventy-four of them at work. This 

 type of school gradually increased until 

 about seventy of them, and chiefiy of a 

 most efficient character, were recognized in 

 1900. Their further increase Avas only 

 arrested by the Cockerton j^idgment, noAV 

 so Avell knoAvn that I need only name it. 

 But here Ave come to a most interesting 

 development. State aid, as already said, 

 was at first limited to the instruction of the 

 industrial classes, but no limitation as to 

 the status of the pupil was made in this 

 ncAV scheme for the schools of science, 

 and logically this freedom Avas extended 

 in 1897 to all instruction aided by the 

 department— the date AA'hen all limitation 

 as to the status of the pupil Avas abolished, 

 the only limitation being the status of the 

 school itself. Thus, if a flourishing public 

 school, charging high fees for tuition, were 

 to apply to participate in the grant voted 

 by parliament, it may be presumed, it 

 Avould have to be refused. The abolition 

 of the restriction as to the status of the 

 pupils left it open to poorly endowed sec- 

 ondary grammar schools to come under the 

 ncAv scheme. To a good many the addi- 

 tional income to be derived from the grant 

 meant continuing their existence as effi- 

 cient, and for this reason, and often, I 

 fear, for this reason alone, some claimed 

 recognition as eligible. 



Such is an outline history of the invasion 

 of science instruction into certain sec- 

 ondary schools— an invasion which ought 

 to be of great national service. In my 

 vicAv no general education is complete Avith- 

 oiit a knoAvledge of those simple truths 

 of science Avhich speak to every one, but 

 usually pass unheeded day by day. The 

 expansion of the reasoning and observa- 

 tional powers of every child is as material 

 to sound education as is the exercise of the 

 memory or the acquisition of some smatter- 

 ing of a language. I am not going into the 



