Parliamentary Publications. 



411 



shown that this study consists for the most part in commit- 

 ting a text-book to memory, and has little educational or 

 practical value. The Commissioners recommend instead 

 that the course of elementary science to be taught in rural 

 schools should be so framed as to illustrate the more simple 

 scientific principles that underlie the art and industry of 

 agriculture. They also recommend the maintenance and 

 extension of school gardens as a means by which these 

 scientific principles may be illustrated and made interesting 

 to the pupils ; but they do not consider the maintenance of 

 school farms, the object of which is to teach agriculture, 

 properly belongs to the functions of a board of primary 

 education. As regards the Model Farm at Glasnevin and 

 the Munster Dairy School, the Commissioners think that 

 they could be made more useful for the purposes of agricul- 

 tural education if placed in charge of an Agricultural Depart- 

 ment. 



Money Lending. Report from the Select Committee on Money 

 Lendingy together with the proceedings of the Committee^ 

 minutes of evidence^ appendix and ifidex [H.C. 260]. 

 Price 2s. -^^d. 



This volume contains the report of the Select Committee 

 appointed in 1898 to inquire into the alleged evils attendant 

 upon the system of money-lending by professional money- 

 lenders, at high rates of interest, or under oppressive condi- 

 tions as to repayment. 



The Committee state, inter alia, that they have received 

 important evidence as to the operation of co-operative banks 

 on the Continent, and in some parts of the United Kingdom, 

 and that it appears that the establishment of such banks has 

 been of great use in abolishing, or largely diminishing, the 

 trade of lending money at exorbitant rates of interest to 

 the poorer classes. The Committee observe that they are 

 invpressed with the extreme usefulness of these institutions, 

 and that they are of opinion that they meet a real want, 

 especially in agricultural districts. They do not, however, 

 recommend any State intervention in connection with them 

 at the present time. 



