Mr. Forster, in moving the Education vote on Thursday night,
made a very cheering statement as to the increase of the attend- ances at school since the Education Act was passed. In the last year previous to the Act, namely, 1869, the average number -of school attendances had been 1,062,999. This last year it had been 1,557,910, so that the total number had been increased in three years by fifty per cent. The true number to be aimed at, however, is just double, nearly 3,000,000, so that even now we have only got half our children to school. The existing schools have accommodation for 2,300,000 children, at least a million less than there should be room for, as it is necen- nary to have the accommodation considerably in advance of the average number of attendances. On the whole, looking both to the average attendances and to the number of school boards, -we may fairly say that as regards quantity of teaching, about half our work is fairly begun, but as regards quality, no doubt we are, and shall remain for a generation, in the greatest need of new light.
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