+ This grant is calculated for ten months.

II.

Madras.

Public Department.

* Marked A.

(No. 1012.)

EXTRACT Minutes of Consultation, dated 23d August 1856.

READ again the following Letter from the Director of Public Instruction :

(Here enter 19th May 1856, No. 465.)

Read also a further Letter from the same Officer, dated 10th July 1856,
No. 591.

WITH the foregoing letters the Director of Public Instruction submits tabular statements of the applications which he has received for grants in aid of schools unconnected with Government, with the recommendation of the Inspector, and his own recommendation in each case.

2. The first report was considered to be incomplete in certain essential particulars, and further information was therefore called for by Government in Extract Minutes of Consultation, dated 26th June 1856, which has now been supplied by the Director in his second report.

3. In addition to two statements containing the grants in aid recommended by the Director, the returns now submitted include a statement* of all applications which had been received, but respecting which fuller information is required before they can be recommended for sanction, and also another statement, marked B, showing the grants already sanctioned under the authority of the Government of India, conveyed in their Despatch, dated 11th May

1855.

4. The Right Honourable the Governor in Council approves of the recommendations of the Director in all the cases entered in the return which accompanied his letter of the 19th May, and in that marked C., submitted with his last report, respecting which the information is complete, and no further report is required from the inspectors. The merits of each application appear to have been well considered by Mr. Arbuthnot; and the grounds upon which his recommendation in every case is based, an abstract of which is given in the tabular statements, are very fully detailed in the body of his letters.

Amounts now recommended

in Letter of 19th May In Letter of 10th July

Already sanctioned

Still available

Rs.

5,701

5. Under the authority of the Government of India, conveyed with Despatch above quoted, his Lordship in Council sanctions the grants now 12,058 recommended, which involve an estimated expenditure for the current official year, exclusive of the amount already sanc17,759 tioned, of 17,759 rupees, as shown in the margin. Deducting 1,344 the whole amount thus placed at the disposal of the Director 19,103 from the expenditure authorised by the Government of India, 5,897 the remainder available for further grants is only 5,897

Rs. 25,000

rupees.

6. The Director has received further applications for 20 schools, and the grants which will probably be required for these he roughly estimates at 12,000 rupees. The Government are disposed to approve of the arrangePara. 44, 10th July. ment proposed in the concluding para. of Mr. Arbuthnot's letter for sup plying the deficiency in the amount available for grants in aid to the extent required to meet the above sum; but they defer passing orders upon this subject until they are in the receipt of a further report upon the applications in the list, marked A., in respect to which no information has yet been furnished by the inspectors.

7. The greater part of the amount placed at the disposal of this Government has thus been already absorbed, and the remainder will scarcely suffice to meet one-half of the applications which have since been received. It appears, therefore, to the Right Honourable the Governor in Council so manifest that a much larger sum must eventually be allowed for grants in aid in this Presidency, that it is perhaps useless to attempt any thing like an equal distribution of the present

present amount. At the same time his Lordship in Council desires to point out to the Director that it will be well to avoid the allotment of an unduly large share to any particular locality; and in the case of Mangalore, where a grant to one school of 744 has already been sanctioned, the application for a second grant of 1,200 for another institution must be carefully considered and reported on.

8. The Government are of opinion that the Director is right in not establishing zillah schools in places where private schools already exist when these are properly conducted, or when the managers will attend to his suggestions for their improvement, as at Trichinopoly. Assistance, however, should be refused when information is not furnished when required by the Director, as in the instances of the town and village vernacular schools, entered as No. 12 in Statement A., and the Madras Native Progressive Seminary, No. 18, of the same

return.

9. The grant of 23 rupees per mensem to the school for pensioners' children at Vellore, alluded to in the foot note to Statement B., should be included among the grants in aid.

PART II.

(No. 156.)

From A. J. Arbuthnot, Esq., Director of Public Instruction, to the Chief
Secretary to Government, Fort St. George.

Sir,
IN my letter of the 10th July last, reporting on the applications for grants in
aid of schools supported by private individuals and societies, which had been
received by me up to that date, I mentioned twenty applications which were
then under reference to the inspectors of schools, or respecting which, for other
reasons, I was prevented from submitting any specific recommendation. From
this list two applications, one preferred on behalf of a mission school at Rajah-
mundry, which was entered in the list of applications included in Appendix A.,
and another on behalf of the school at Ramiapatam, which had been partially,
but not entirely, disposed of in my letter of the 19th of May, were inadvertently
omitted. Twenty-two applications therefore remained to be disposed of at the
period to which I refer.

2. Sixteen applications have been since received, some shortly after my last report was submitted, others more recently, and of the entire number, 38, 23 have been reported on by the inspectors, while in regard to the remainder, with a few exceptions, I am able to submit such recommendations as will admit of their being disposed of, without further reference to Government, so soon as the necessary inspection shall have been made.

3. I have deemed it advisable to include in this letter all the applications which have come before me, inasmuch as the aggregate amount applied for is considerably in excess of that named in my former report, and it seems desirable that some definite rule should be laid down as to the proportion which the Government grant shall bear to the amount raised from local sources, supposing it to be shown by the reports of the inspectors that such grant can be advantageously expended. The principle of the rules at present in force is, that grants may be given to any amount not exceeding the amount raised from local sources; but in practice this is impossible, the sum at the disposal of the Madras Government for expenditure in the shape of grants in aid being little more than onesixth of the sum at present expended by those societies and committees by whom the applications referred to in this and my former reports have been preferred. In most cases, therefore, the sums applied for are very much in excess of what, on the most favourable consideration of the applications, it is possible to grant; and there is, consequently, much difficulty in deciding between conflicting 186 (II.)-Sess. 2.

II.

Madras.

claims, inasmuch as there is no broad principle which can be followed in the apportionment of the sum available, the amount to be assigned in each case being dependent, in a great measure, on the reports of the different inspectors, who may judge by very different standards, or may be guided by very different considerations as to the relative claims of different institutions or localities. The circumstances of this country, moreover, and especially of this Presidency, where so large a portion of the education of the people is at present in the hands of Christian Missionaries, render it in the highest degree desirable that every possible ground for suspicion as to the impartial distribution of the grants should be removed. With this view, it seems to me essential that each School Committee applying for Government aid shall have a reasonable expectation of receiving, sooner or later, some fixed sum, bearing a definite proportion to the amount they are able to contribute.

4. I do not, of course, mean to propose that when the proportion the Government grants are to bear to private contributions shall have been laid down, such proportionate sums shall be given in all cases, irrespectively of the merits or demerits of the schools for which the grants are sought. I merely recommend that the main principle to be looked to in the assignment of the funds at the disposal of Government should be their allotment, as far as possible, in a definite proportion to the local contributions, due care being taken to prevent their being appropriated to unworthy objects, whether it be in augmentation of the salaries of teachers, who are considered undeserving of the salaries it is proposed to assign to them, or in the provision of unsuitable buildings, or for the promotion of any course of instruction which the Government, having regard to the advancement and extension of sound education, may not think fit to encourage.

5. Another important advantage which may be expected from the practical adoption of this principle in the apportionment of the Government grants is, that it will give a much greater stimulus to private efforts than is afforded by the arrangements at present in force. Under these arrangements, committees and managers of private schools are aware, that to expect a grant to the amount permitted by the rules is almost hopeless, and they have no guarantee that, supposing the reports on their schools to be satisfactory, the grant will bear any definite proportion to the sum raised by them. They have consequently no incentive to increase their contributions; and although the vigilance of the inspectors may prevent the public grants being made to supersede what has hitherto been accomplished by private efforts, there is the risk in this state of things of its preventing future efforts, inasmuch as committees will naturally feel that so long as the grant falls short of the amount which, under the rules, may be given, there is no need of further exertions on their part to procure contributions. If, for instance, the local funds of a school amount to 1,200 rupees per annum, and the Government grant is 400 rupees, while the rules admit of a grant of 1,200 rupees, it is scarcely to be expected that the managers will exert themselves to raise their receipts from local sources, but rather that they will endeavour, on other grounds, to make out a case for an addition to the Government grant. But if, on the other hand, the grant bear a definite proportion to the local subscriptions, say one-half of the amount so raised, or, in the case instanced, 6C0 rupees, and that on the committees raising their subscriptions to 1,500 rupees, they may reasonably look for a proportionate addition to the Government grant, it is not too much to expect that the amount of private contributions for the promotion of education throughout the country will gradually increase, instead of diminishing or remaining stationary, as is to be apprehended under the operation of the existing rules.

6. If, then, the principle for which I have contended in the foregoing remarks be adopted, the next question for decision is, what proportion the Government grant shall bear to the amount of local funds. For the determination of this point it is necessary to consider what is the amount at present expended on education in those schools on behalf of which applications have been or are likely to be received, and what sum will be required from the Government treasury in order to augment these private contributions, in such proportion as may be resolved on, and to admit of the extension of the grant in a similar proportion on an increase in the amount of private expenditure.