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sion to consider the question as a whole, and accord-
singly the information obtained requires to be supple-
mented by means of further enquiries. Under these
circumstances, it has appeared that instead of even
attempting at this stage of their proceedings to
frame a full report on the various and intricate
questions which present themselves to their notice,
or of making recommendations founded upon a
necessarily hasty review and imperfect knowledge
on important points, the preferable course would be
for the Commission to confine themselves for the
present to such practical suggestions as, in their
opinion, require immediate action, and the adoption
of which, they believe, would further the cause of
education, whatever might be the system ultimately
established.

As regards the mode in which the funds available
for the support of schools are at present adminis-
tered, the Commission have arrived at the conclu-
sion that the system hitherto in operation of handing
over these funds for distribution to the heads of
three particular religious denominations, is open to
grave objections.

In the first place, there seems no reason, on general
grounds, for supposing that those to whom this pri-
vilege is accorded are specially qualified, either from
their past training or present avocations, for acting
as administrators of public funds; so far from this,
indeed, as regards educational arrangements sup-
posed to be more specially the province of ministers
of religion, it appears to the Commission that
past experience would lead to a directly opposite
conclusion. In expressing this opinion the Commis-
sion would wish not to be understood as intending to
cast any blame or in any way to make the slightest
reflection upon those hitherto entrusted with the ad-
ministration of the educational grants; on the con-
trary, they bear willing testimony to the zeal and
earnestness which has distinguished those entrusted
with this duty; but, at the same time, the Commis-
sion cannot conceal from themselves that this very
zeal and earnestness has begun to take a direction
not altogether consistent with judicious and econo-
mical expenditure, and the tendency seems to be not
so much to consult the wants of the people in general
as to promote the interests and extend the influence
of a particular denomination; from this it has re-
sulted that the education of the country is carried
on not on any general plan but according to the dif-
ferent and often antagonistic views of three indepen-
dent bodies, each endeavouring to forestall the other;
the practical effect being that inefficient and ex-
pensive schools have been established at a compara-
tively heavy cost in districts where one good school
might be maintained at a much smaller cost.

It does not appear, moreover, that the system has
at all answered the ends for the attainment of which
it was originally established. The principle to
which that system, as the Commission understand,
owes its rise, is twofold.

1st. The State felt itself bound to require some
guarantee that the children educated in schools sup-
ported by public funds should be religiously brought
up. 2nd. It recognised the claims of the different
denominations to have facilities for imparting reli-
gious truth, in accordance with the special tenets
respectively professed by each.

The Commission do not deny that so far as they
can judge, the first of these objects has been attained.
They have found as a general rule that, in the
schools supported by Government aid, instruction
is paid to the religious part of the instruction. In
most of them religious instruction is given daily, but
in none, so far as the Commission could ascertain,
can this be traced to the distribution of funds among
the heads of denominations, but rather to the good
feeling and religious principle of the masters. The
ministers of religion do not appear, except in partic-
ular cases, to take so active a part in the manage-
ment of the schools as would make their influence
felt in any appreciable degree.

The Commission find, as a matter of fact, that speaking generally,
the ministers of the various denominations do not
take any active part in directing the course of instruc-
tion, either religious or secular, given in the schools.

With regard to the second point, the system now
in operation does not appear to effect the object pro-
posed, of satisfying the religious scruples of parents,
by ensuring the instruction of their children in the
distinctive doctrines of the denomination to which
they belong.

It will not be necessary, on the present occasion,
to enter into details on this part of the question. It
will probably be sufficient to state, generally, that
many of the existing schools are only nominally in
connection with the denomination under whose con-
trol they are placed. The sole connection being that
they are supported by funds placed at the disposal
of one denomination instead of by those in the
hands of another. But this relation by no means
necessarily implies that the distinctive doctrines pro-
fessed by the denomination through which aid is
given are taught in the school receiving that aid.
Instances will be found of schools supported by one
denomination where the teacher as well as the ma-
jority of the scholars belong to another, and where,
accordingly, the religious doctrines taught are
different from, or even perhaps opposed to, those
professed by the denomination with which they are
connected.

The Commission find, moreover, that the practical
effect of the present system has been to place a much
larger discretionary power in the hands of the res-
pective heads of denominations than seems to have
been intended by the Provincial Legislature.

The resolutions of the Provincial Council under
which the grant is at present administered appear
to contemplate the reservation of an effective control
in the hands of the Executive. By the sixth of
the resolutions it is provided that “a scale of
salaries, proportionable to the average attendance,
shall be determined by the Superintendent and Ex-
ecutive Council, in consultation with the heads of
the religious bodies above mentioned, and the In-
spector of Schools hereinafter appointed.” It ap-
pears, however, that in practice this provision has
been disregarded, and that thus the power which
was intended to have been exercised conjointly by
an agreement between three separate bodies has been
engrossed by only one of them, namely, the heads of
denominations; the result being that the Executive
is left without any power of checking or controlling
extravagant or injudicious expenditure.

In offering suggestions for removing the incon-
veniences here adverted to, the Commission would
not go further at present than to recommend
the withdrawal of the educational grant from
the heads of denominations as soon as the ap-
propriation in their favour expires, with a view to
its administration being entrusted to some depart-
ment of the Executive Government. The Commis-
sion assume that the requirements of the province
will make the creation of an educational department
of Government necessary in the future; in which
case, whatever may be the particular machinery, to
that department would properly belong the adminis-
tration of the educational grant.

One objection may be thought to exist to this pro-
posal in the fact that the buildings at present used
for school purposes are in most cases built on sites
the property, not of the Government but, of the
religious denominations with which the schools are
connected. The Commission are not, however, dis-
posed to attach any great weight to this objection.
The Commission are not, however, prepared to say
the existing schools need not to be interfered with.
The schools already established might be continued,
without any great detriment, on their present footing,
except that they would receive aid direct from the Government, instead of through
the channel of the heads of denominations, and any
change of the present system might be gradually
introduced by arrangements satisfactory to all
parties. The Commission do not believe that the
heads of denominations value so highly the unsub-
stantial privilege of administering the public money
as to induce them to make this a condition of their
allowing the use of the school sites now under their
control, more especially as the possession of the sites
afford a sufficient guarantee that their wishes will