high school attendance is common to other countries, but that is no reason why we should calmly accept it and not attempt to find the causes and apply the remedies. In the report of the United States Commissioner of Labour this question is dealt with as follows:

"The parents of these boys and young men are confronted with the question, Will it pay me to send my son to school for another year, or will he receive sufficient benefit from it to warrant my making the necessary sacrifice? The fact that such a very large proportion of the parents answer the question as they do is proof to me that something should be done towards affording more adequate means for secondary technical education. Thus from all sides -from the manufacturer who feels the need of more intelligent workers, from the young men who desire a training which will directly help them in a practical way, from their parents who have to make the sacrifice in order that they may get more training, from every direction-we are getting more and more proof of this need for the kind of technical training adapted to the needs of those who are going to enter our industries as artisans."

Public school education has had as its objective point the passing of the entrance examination, which a large proportion of the pupils never attempt.

The introduction of art, nature study, and constructive work should do and are doing much to give a more practical trend to public school education, but a curriculum on paper without efficient teachers is of little value. From observation and correspondence I am forced to the conclusion that a large number of our teachers are without the necessary knowledge to enable them to teach these subjects. A small departmental grant would encourage their introduction. This would only need to be continued until they were firmly established, and their value recognized. To give to the teachers the knowledge lacking, steps such as the following might be taken:

1. The issue of bulletins by the Department.

2. Establishing centres of instruction.

3. Encouraging correspondence regarding difficulties.

4. The institution of small circulating libraries containing (say) twenty of the best books on these subjects, accompanied by a brief explanatory pamphlet.

Considerable attention should be devoted to practical work in the rural schools, which educate nearly 58 per cent. of the children of the Province. Art, constructive work and nature study should receive much thought and the teachers put in the way of giving efficient instruction. We might well adopt that provision in the school law of Nova Scotia, which prescribes that a “superior" school must possess one bench and a set of tools.

Some steps should be taken to retain the many pupils who disappear at the end of the fourth book, and their retention can only be secured by providing such education as will meet their needs in later life. The Royal Commission says: "As a consequence (of the introduction of these subjects) the school attendance is improved, the children remain at school to a more advanced age and much time is gained for the purposes of education. Manual Training and Household Science are now established in eighty centres, but there is room for extension and urgent need for disseminating information as to their advantages. As a sound basis for higher technical education they are of great value."

The success that has attended the travelling dairy school suggests the thought of a travelling Manual Training and Household Science school. An equipment for each subject could be purchased and teachers engaged. These might be located in one centre for six or twelve months and the authorities of the town or district would have every opportunity of observing the effects

of the work and judging its results. At the end of the fixed period both teachers and equipment could be moved to another centre. In this way more localities would be induced to take up the subjects.

Up to the present our educational system has concerned itself almost entirely with preparation for college life and the so-called learned professions. and those who have neither the inclination nor the opportunity to take up either have been neglected and not considered fit subjects for educational effort. Every interest in the Province demands consideration and schools of the following classes are required: --

1. Agricultural High Schools or classes.

2. Technical High Schools or classes. 3. Commercial High Schools or classes. 4. Academic High Schools.

Many of the smaller towns would not be able to support, and have no need of, a separate technical school, but an industrial side might well be established in connection with their high schools, embracing woodwork, metal work, household science, mechanical drawing, and science and art, and the instruction should have a practical relation to the work for which it is fitting the students.

The present type of high school meets the demand for academic training, but generally speaking does not offer facilities to those whose bent is towards industrial pursuits. They prepare for the university and for entrance to the teaching profession, but we have no feeder for the School of Practical Science, the School of Mines, or the Agricultural College.

We require an intermediate grade of school which shall establish a connection between the fourth and fifth books of the public school and the Agricultural College. This connection could be made by the formation in suitable localities, of schools in which agricultural operations and the sciences underlying them would form the major part of the instruction. The equipment of such a school should consist of garden plots, glass houses, manual training rooms, household science rooms, in addition to ordinary class rooms for academic work. Such a school would adequately equip pupils for the college, give an inclination towards country life and might reasonably be expected to arouse the interest of the people. The farmers' and womens' institutes should have their attention directed to these questions and their cooperation secured.

A school such as is suggested would serve as the secondary school for farmers. The first experiment of this kind was the Minnesota School of Agriculture. The course covers three winters of six months each, leaving the student on the home farm during the six crop months. Eighty-two per cent. of the graduates remain in agriculture and seventy per cent. actually return to the farm. This school has now five hundred students and the State is equipping it for double its present capacity. About one-third of the course of study is devoted to common high school studies, one-third to sciences and arts of agriculture and one-third to related sciences. The North Dakota College at Fargo and the University of Nebraska at Lincoln have followed this plan and each has now an agricultural high school with several hundred students. A large proportion of the students who enter these schools expect to remain on the farm, would not be so much attracted to other schools and probably would not go beyond the rural school.

There is also needed a type of school which will have special reference to the industrial life of the towns and cities. Such a school would attract a large number of those who at present never enter a high school, and do something while educating the student, towards supplying that training for

industrial life which the rapid decay of the apprenticeship system is now preventing.

Such a school should seek to

1. Provide from one to four year courses for boys and girls who are inclined towards some form of productive industry.

2. Provide a continuation course for those who wish to specialize along particular lines.

3. Provide a comprehensive system of technical evening classes for those actually engaged in the trades.

Outside Hamilton, Toronto, and Brantford evening classes are practically non-existent. While agriculture is the staple industry, yet the different mechanical trades are of great importance and education specially designed to assist their intelligent practice is greatly required.

A few years ago there were six art schools in various parts of the Province. To-day two survive and these are engaged in a constant struggle to provide the necessary funds. They should be directed by the regularly constituted educational authorities, and placed on a sound financial basis. We need a Provincial Art School to which students of promise might come from various parts of the Province and thus avoid the necessity of going abroad.

We require an industrial museum which would be a standing exhibition. of the capabilities, methods and triumphs of skilled and educated labour. Such a museum would do much to stimulate trade and industry, and is a leading feature in the technical educational systems of many foreign countries. In closing this report, I beg sincerely to thank you, Sir, as well as the Deputy Minister and the Superintendent for the cordial help I have received towards carrying on the important work in which I have the honour to be engaged.

I am your obedient servant,

ALBERT H. LEAKE.