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42

MR. A. W. FLUX, M.A., ON CITY GOVERNMENT AND

Boys.

Giris.

Scholars.

Age.

569

1,162 4,966 5,305 5,445 5,298 5,062 4,741 4,539

593

6 7 8 9

• 2,562

2,404 2,551 2,613 2,573 2,471 2 350 2,291

2,754 2,832 2,725 2,591 2,391 2,248 396

10 11 12 13 14 15

542

938 26

3

23

37,482

All Ages.

18,387

19,095

The variation of numbers at the ages 7 to 13 is due, not to neglect of school attendance, but to the operations of other schools, and in very slighib degree to the substitution of private instruction for school attendance. Of course movements of popu­ lation have also their influence. A very important point, how- ever, is the faet tliat some of the other schools, to which a further reference will be made later, which correspond to our voluntary schools in large degree, but are subject to supervision by the city school authorities, do not receive children at the younger ages, the largest of the non-fee-paying schools taking none under 10 years of age. The decrease of numbers in the publicly- supported schools is, in faet, mainly' due to transference to voluntary schools of the older scholars. In further illustration of the different habits in the matter of school organisation which one may find in a foreign city, it is worthy of note that the school-hours are either from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. or from 1 to 6 p.m. The same buildings are in use for two sets of children, and though teachers do not labour for the ten hours during which the schools are open, the same teachers do, in some degree, serve for both sets of children. As stated, a child’s ordinary school-hours are thirty per week. A large number of the teachers give thirty-six hours as a normal week’s Work, and extra time beyond this is given by some. The severity of the strain imposed on them is, however, modified by the faet that a lesson occupies only 45 minutes, and the odd quarter of an hour at the end of each lesson is spent by the children in the play-