For such compensation it is not reasonable to expect that a high degree of literary attainment coupled with professional skill would be called into service. The wages and qualifications of teachers must be proportional. The payment of high salaries to inferior teachers will not insure good schools. The tendency, however, of paying higher wages will be to direct the attention of a greater number of persons to the profession of teaching. A competition will thus be created, and soon higher literary attainments and greater professional skill will be brought into the service.

Neither will the payment of moderate or low salaries to good teachers necessarily produce poor schools. It will not, however, long secure the services of good teachers. As is the demand so will be the supply. If a reasonable compensation is offered for the services of good teachers, young ladies and gentlemen of the first order of talent will attain the requisite qualifications and cheefully tax their best capabilities in the interesting though arduous duties of this profession. He who can teach a good school can engage with proportionate success in other pursuits. If he is not reasonably compensated for teaching, he will seek a more lucrative employment. It is the opinion of some that a second or third order of intellect is all that is desirable to constitute a successful common school teacher. This is evidently erroneous. It may be all that the present compensation will long retain in the service. But it is not all that its importance claims. As is the teacher so will be the school. And as are our common schools so will be our future legislators and statesman. This subject will receive further consideration in another place, (in connection with teachers' institutes.)

According to the table to which reference has been already made very unequal and disproportionate wages are paid in the different townships. The notes appended to the tables marked (A.) and (B.) will assist in determining the degree of confidence which may safely be reposed in their accuracy.

The following extracts are taken from table (A.):

"

According to this extract, the average wages per month paid quali fied male teaches in five townships in three counties is only $4,09; and the average monthly wages paid female teachers in four towns in four different counties is only $1,71

EXPENSIVE TEACHERS,

Genessee, dohtw cost Genessee, od go $31.50 $3000.

(.) Phetford,noda oy also gaiwello 15 83

23 50 17 00

20 00

24 00 24 00

$30 24 $21 37

According to this extract, the average wages per month, exclusive of board, paid male teachers in seven towns in four counties, is $3024, and the average wages per month, exclusive of board, paid female. teachers in five towns in two counties, is $21 37.

It is impossible to determine, in the majority of cases, from the reports received at this office, how much of the money raised in the several districts, has been applied in the payment of teacher's wages, and how much has been expended in building and repairing school houses, and for other purposes.

is

The total amount of school money received in the several districts,

The amount raised by tax, is

The amount received from local funds is

The amount paid unqualified teachers, is

Total,

$23,293 33

59,931 62

1,649 58

5,880 75

$90,755 28

The total amount expended for building and repairing school houses, and for the payment of teachers, qualified and unqualified, embra. cing the public money, is only one dollar for each child between the ages of 4 and 18 years.

The reports received from the several counties, also represent that 4,492 children have been taught in select schools, at an average of $2 64 per quarter, and that 3,013 of these children are between the ages of 4 and 18 years. A simple arithmetical calculation based upon these data, shows that the expense of teaching a given number of scholars in select schools, is more than three times as much as in common schools, embracing the amount paid for building and repairing school houses. The reports do not represent the entire number of select schools. Far from it-they only represent those within the bounds of the districts reporting. Not one of the seven select schools in Monroe, mentioned in another part of this report, is embraced in the report from said town. The reason is this: They are all in unorganized districts, from which no reports are received. A similar state of things exists in many other towns and villages.

Visiting Schools.

According to the returns, the inspectors have paid 1,956 visits to the schools under their supervision. Deduct from this number, 274, the number of visits to the schools in the city of Detroit, by the Board

of Education, and the total number of visits to all the other schools in the state, by the inspectors, is 1,682, less than two-thirds the number of school districts! At a moderate estimate, according to the requirements of law,there should have been 5,000 official visits to the schools from these officers.

Upwards of $90,000 has been expended upon our common schools during the past year. So much money is nowhere else expended with so little immediate supervision. There is no other work, that more needs efficient supervision, than the business of education.

Would it be unwise to employ five or six hundred mechanics and laborers, at an expense of eighty or a hundred thousand dollars, to improve our harbors, without any supervision, and allow each to labor when, and where, and as he pleases ?

It is equally unwise, and vastly more injurious in its consequences, to employ 3,000 school teachers, (many of whom are young and inexperienced,) and visit but half of their schools. There are many entire towns, in which the inspectors have not visited a single school. The average number of visits to all the schools of a county (excepting six,) is less than 40.

The several district boards have visited their schools a less number of times than the inspectors; the entire number of visits being less than half the number of schools. Parents are the natural guardians and teachers of their children. The work of education cannot safely be conducted exclusively by delegation. Indeed, were it safe, it would seem as though parents who are properly interested in the education of their offspring would esteem it a privilege to visit their schools at least once a month. But the district officers have not on an average, visited them once in eighteen months! Frequent visits to the school by inspectors and parents, encourage both teacher and scholars. The teacher will pursue his labor of love with a lighter heart, and with increased devotion, feeling that he has the countenance and co-operation of the parents of his charge. Children, too, will be inspired to redouble their dilligence in climbing the rugged hill of science.

Libraries.

We have district and township libraries. In the former, the district owns a library which circulates exclusively in the district. In the lat

ter, the township owns a library, from which each district is entitled to draw books quarterly. There are in the state, according to the returns, 115 district libraries, containing 8,460 volumes. There are also 293 township libraries, containing 24,905 volumes. The township libraries contain more than seven times as many volumes as the district libraries. According to the reports, these libraries are gener. ally well selected, and in many cases, are eminently useful.

The following is an extract from the report of the board of school inspectors for Cambria, Hillsdale county :

"The character of our township library, so far as our information extends, is unexceptionable, containing nothing of a sectarian character, or of an immoral tendency. The circulation, though not as extensive as could be wished, nor as it would be under a strict performance of duties by the directors of districts, is, nevertheless, fair. In some parts of the township, the circulation is very general, and its influence upon the morals of the inhabitants plainly perceptible. Juvenile readers manifest a great attachment to many books contained in the library, and the many hours heretofore spent in idleness and sports, are now devoted to the acquisition of knowledge; and their progress in the art of reading, is in many instances rapid. In those of maturer years and more expanded views, political discussions and neighborhood slanders give way, in a great measure, during the long winter evenings, to the perusal of works of a higher character in the midst of the family circle."

Communications of the same general character have been received in several instances from other towns. In some cases, however, good libraries are not duly appreciated, and the law requiring their establishment is regarded as unjust and oppressive. The requirements of the law relating to township libraries have, hitherto, been totally disregarded in the majority of instances. Only 203 townships out of 417, are supplied with libraries. Supervisors have not only neglected to assess the half mill tax required by law, but they have, in many cases, appropriated the equivalents for exemption from military duty, and the proceeds of fines assessed for breach of the penal laws, to general purposes, when the law and the constitution require that they "shall be exclusively applied to the support of libraries."

To lay this matter more fully before the legislature, I will here insert the following correspondence with the Attorney General' on this subject: