The London School Board elections come off on the 26th
inst., and we are rather anxious as to their result. On the one hand, the mere cry for economy is both dangerous in itself as regards the quality of the education given, and too likely to result in needlessly enlarged expenditure,—certainly much of the waste on building has been due to accepting the lowest tenders of contractors who did not give good work. On the other hand, we have no belief that experienced administrators like Sir Richard Temple and Mr. Diggle, who support the economical party more or less, will really countenance a policy of mean and narrow economy. What the electors ought to aim at is electing men who wish to make the London education thoroughly efficient and good, but who see the great danger of so piling up the rates as to cause disquiet and reaction in the minds of the ratepayers. We hold that several of the so-called economical party are not really opposed to securing a good education; and, on the other hand, that others of that party are quite ignorant of the conditions of the case, and likely to vote for a policy which would make the London Board schools far less efficient than the better Voluntary schools. For example, the cry about pianos has been raised in complete ignorance that the best Voluntary schools always have pianos and harmoniums for the use of the master or mistress in directing the singing, marching, &c., of the children, though not, of course, for the children's use, and that a piano or harmonium for that pur- pose is really all but essential to an efficient school.
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