Anonymous

“ No fairer standard than this can be chosen, and yet we find that there is an increase in one year and-a-half of nearly 30 per cent, in the cost of teaching for each child in average attendance. Such an increase means of course nothing more or less than a general advancement of the salaries, a quite unneccessary step (to this extent at least) when we bear in mind that the demand for this class of Teachers exists only on the part of Board and Voluntary Schools, and that the prestige attached to the former would be sufficient inducement for efficient Teachers to engage themselves therewith. ”

“ There is no desire by partial statements or unfair criticisms to hinder the work of Education so ably inaugurated by the Act of 1870. But this Act was essentially a compromise between those who, while holding very divergent views, were equally desirous for the general interests of Elementary Education, and one general understanding, which more than any other influenced the mutual agreement, was the representation of the responsible Minister of the Crown, that the Act would not entail a rate exceeding threepence in the £. ”

“ In this item, as in the previous ones, it is important to observe that these charges are increasing every half-year, out of all proportion to the increase in the amount of work done, and if not speedily checked will continue to increase at the same rate.
The last item with which we propose to deal is that of the Salaries of the Officers of the Staff. A just criterion of the economical or extravagant tendencies of a public body will always be afforded by a review of the cost of administration by the staff of the central office. ”