Mr. Chamberlain made an admirable speech on education in opening
a new Board school in Birmingham yesterday week. He showed that the Education Act had increased the accommo- dation for elementary scholars from a little over 2,000,000 in 1871, to 5,145,000 in 1886, or by 155 per cent., and had increased the average attendance from 1,231,000 to 3,438,000, an increase of 180 per cent. as we make it, though Mr. Chamberlain is reported as calling it one of 280 per cent. He showed how the denominational schools had prospered under the Act of 1870. In 1871, the accommodation in denominational schools was a little over 2,000,000, and is now 3,4,52,000; while the average attendance in these schools has increased from 1,231,000 to 2,187,000. Mr. Chamberlain thought, therefore, that the denominations would do well to let "sleeping dogs lie," and not ask for aid from the rates in addition to the State grant. Aid from the rates must necessarily involve interference on the part of the representatives of the rate- payers, just as State grants involve interference by State inspectors, and Mr. Chamberlain had a very shrewd suspicion that a demand for the representation of the ratepayers in the government of denominational schools would not be at all a welcome proposal to the present denominational managers. In fact, it would render the management a mere organisation for squabbling fatal to the harmonious working of the system.
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