E.—2.

It is to be noted that the word " science " in this section is used in the older unrestricted sense. The several Acts under which the secondary schools were established provided for a similar type of education, based more or less directly on the traditional practice of the English public schools, many of which, however, such as Oundle, Dulwich, and Bedford, had for some considerable time before 1900 reorganized their work on more modern lines. It is interesting to note that the Consolidated Education Act of 1908 repeats in sections 86 and 87 word for word sections 55 and 56 of the 1877 Act, with the addition of a provision for free places in district high schools. Fees for tuition in district high schools were fixed by regulation for each district, and ranged up to about £10 per annum for a full course ; fees in the secondary schools ranged from £6 to £13 per annum for boys, and on the average £2 less for girls. At secondary schools the total attendance for the last term of 1899 was 2,544, of whom 490 weTe boarders, about 325 holders of Education Board Scholarships from the primary schools, besides which about 280 other pupils were receiving free tuition. Thus nearly a quarter of the pupils in the secondary schools were receiving free education. The first step in the provision of further facilities for post-primary as well as for primary education was contained in those sections of the Manual and Technical Instruction Act, 1900, which related to school classes. These sections provided for the payment of capitation in respect of classes for manual training (woodwork, cookery, &c.,) and for technical instruction (including dairy science, elementary agriculture, elementary physics, or elementary chemistry) established in secondary and district high schools within ordinary school hours. In the same Act provision was made for special and associated classes in continuation and technical subjects. On 17th January, 1901, regulations under the 1900 Act were first issued practically covering the same field as regards continuation, commercial, art, and technical subjects as those at present in operation. In establishing school classes earning special capitation within ordinary school hours it was the expressed desire of Inspector-General Hogben to encourage from the infant classes upwards through the standards and into the high schools the use as instruments of education of subjects directly connected with the life and. activities of the child and of the community. Especially was he concerned to see that the " direct" method in language training and" " heuristic" methods in the treatment of mathematics and other sciences should be adopted as widely as possible. The next step in the extension of facilities for post-primary education appears to have been taken in a circular memorandum to Education Boards dated the Bth January, 1901, stating that a vote of £550 was available for district high schools to provide, in addition to the statutory grant of £3 15s. per pupil, up to £6 per pupil in the case of free pupils taking at least three secondary subjects in addition to English. Regulations on the same lines were issued on the 14th February, 1902. Provision was also made in the 1901-2 appropriations for £1,000 for technical scholarships, repeated in 1902-3 but not spent; and, in 1902-3, £500 for scholarships and free secondary education (in addition to the usual appropriation of £8,000 for Is. and 6d. capitation allowance to Education Boards for scholarships.) On the 11th December, 1902, a circular memorandum was sent to Secondary School Boards outlining a scheme for the admission of additional free-place holders to secondary schools. Certain Boards accepted the scheme and accordingly admitted pupils with a Certificate of Proficiency who were under fourteen on the 31st December. Regulations on the lines of this memorandum do not appear to have been gazetted, but the final and ultimately effective step of opening the secondary schools to the Proficiency pupils of the primary schools was taken in the passing of the Secondary Schools Act, 1903, on the 23rd November, and the issue of regulations under this Act on the 16th December, 1903. The appropriations for 1903-4 included £9,000 for capitation and grants-in-aid for district high schools, and £4,000 capitation for secondary schools and colleges. By regulations dated 18th June, 1903, provision was made for free-place capitation to be payable in respect of junior technical scholars at the rate of 3d. for each pupil hour, additional to the statutory rates for all recognized classes. The 1903-4 appropriation for technical scholarships was £2,000, but only £151 10s. was spent in that year, and £875 15s. Bd. in the following year. The provision of free places in district high schools produced an immediate effect, and " at the end of 1902 there were 1,426 pupils who, having passed Standard VI, were receiving free instruction in secondary subjects. The number of such schools, which during 1901 had increased from thirteen to twenty-one, rose to thirty-eight at the end of 1902 " (p. 5, E.-12, 1903). Hogben in 1902 and again in 1903 warned the district high schools against " giving the secondary pupils a little Latin or French and a little elementary algebra or Euclid and avoiding science and manual and commercial training" (E.-12, 1903). It was not, however, until 27th May, 1909, that the free-place regulations included special provision for payment of £5 10s. per annum for free pupils in district high schools taking an approved agricultural course; and the subject of practical agriculture and dairy science was not made compulsory in certain district high schools until a later date. In his report of the 30th October, 1901, Hogben expressed the view that it would be neither necessary nor expedient to establish district high schools in centres where there were secondary schools in order to provide for the towns the same free-place facilities which had been given to country children attending the existing district high schools. On the other hand, he expected that as increased facilities were being provided for technical instruction the demand

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