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dices to the annual reports of the Education Department. There still existed boroughs and parishes enough which did nothing at all in this matter.

To amend this Elementary Act, other Acts were passed in 1873, 1876, 1879 and 1880, among which that of 1876 is most important as to compulsory attendance. Sections 4 and 12 of Chapter 79 run as follows:

„4. It shall be the duty of the parent of every child to cause such child to receive efficient elementary instruction in reading, writing and arithmetic, and if such parent fail to vemoemm such duty, he shall be liable to such orders and penalties as are provided by this Act.

„12. Where an attendance order is not complied with, without any reasonable excuse, a court of summary jurisdiction, on complaint made by the local authority, may, if it think fit, order as follows: In the first case of non-compliance, if the parent of the child does not. appear, or appears and fails to satisfy the court that he has used all reasonable efforts to enforce compliance with the order, the court may impose a penalty not exceeding with the costs five shillings; but if the parent satisfies the court that he has used all reasonable efforts as aforesaid, the court may, without inflicting a penalty, order the child to be sent to a certified Day Industrial School.“

Moreover, this Act provides for the appointment of a school attendance committee for every borough and parish for which a School Board has not been elected.

The Act of 1880, which is very short, provides that the Education Department may make byelaws for those districts which have not made them for themselves. By it compulsion was first fully and universally established.

All Public Elementary Schools are administered by these Acts as well as by Codes, of which a new one is issued every year.

Now what has been the effect of these Acts? The following table of statistics, taken from the reports of the Inspectors, on the Public Elementary Schools, visited by them in 1870 and in subsequent years, shows the rate of progress since the passing of the Acts.

See Supplementary Table.

We see by these figures, which, speaking for themselves, need no explanation, that Eng- land has made rapid progress in the increase of the number of children taught in Public Ele- mentary Schools, but there still remains very much to be done. The age-statistics of the cen- sus of 1881 show that 22.73 per cent of the whole population are between 3 and 13 years of age.“ According to the statistics 20.34 per cent(1: 5) of the total population might be found on the registers of Public Elementary Schools; this percentage includes the Elementary pupils between 3 and 13 years. Seats should be provided for 16.66 per cent thereof(1:6), and all these seats be daily occupied. Thus for 1889: 5,803,122 pupils of Public Elemen- tary Schools ought to be found on the registers and 4,835,935 in regular daily attendance, viz: as many seats. The reality shows quite another picture. It is a matter of course that the supply of seats must be in excess of the supposed daily attendance number, but it is remarkable and there is no reason, why this excess(5,440,441: 3,682,625) should amount to more than one million and a half. According to the Report of the Committee of the Council on Education, there were on the registers oniy 4,755,835 children, of whom 4,307,979 were present on the day of the inspector'’s visit, and 3,682,625 were, on an average, in daily attendance throughout the year. That is to say: There are about 25 per cent of pupils missing on the school registers, and the same percentage exists as to non-attendance, although for absence on account of sickness, bad weather, great distance from school, and other rea- sonable excuses for irregular attendance, a percentage of 3.68 of the total population only is calculated, and this number is already deducted. Moreover, these figures include also children under 5 years of age, and among these 4,755,835 day scholars there are(according to the Report). 464,144 below that age. It is interesting to know also the other figures: Among these 4,755,835 day scholars on the registers, there are still 1,031,626 between 5

¹ See the Education Department's Annual Reports.