entirely of wood, but being constructed according to more recent plans than many of the others, it is loftier and more airy. The rooms are large, lofty, and very well lighted by numerous windows provided with green venetian blinds. The building is surmounted by an ornamental bell tower. The rooms are almost all upon the first floor, though, as the ground slopes rapidly away on one side, there is on that side a basement story, where the younger children are taught. Generally the principal rooms used for teaching are on one floor, and reach from that floor to the roof, thus securing plenty of cubic space for air, and avoiding the necessity for any tramping up and down stairs, and the noise and dust consequent upon this.

In the particular school to which I refer, there is a marked cleanliness and neatness pervading everything; the desks are scrubbed, and the brass tops of the ink-pots polished brilliantly.

The manner of the head teacher is very quiet and attractive, and peace seems to reign in the school. Of course, there must be some power of coercion somewhere, for the colonial youth are not very amenable to discipline, but it seems impossible to imagine a large school carried on with less friction, or appearance of forcible

measures.

The head teacher is the chief advocate of the system of combining into one school in each town the children who have passed Standard 4, and wish to go to higher standards. He told us that there were throughout the colony 1,600 children in Standards 5 and 6, as against 20,000 in the other standards, that the teaching was costly, the subjects pretentious and beyond the needs of the children. He considered the derivations of English words from Greek and Latin roots referred to above, quite useless, and also the extraction of square and cube roots, all of which, he thought, fell within the province of the secondary or high schools, with which the colony is well supplied.

His opinion was, and is, that the work of the primary schools should stop at Standard 4, and then be taken up by the secondary schools.

The remarks made in an earlier portion of this paper will show that with these views we are disposed to coincide.

We have not here touched upon the secondary schools or university colleges of New Zealand, as the limits of this article do not admit of our so doing.

POLITICAL ECONOMY IN SCHOOLS.

MORE

PROF. W. E. BURCHILL, DENVER, COL.

ORE than one hundred and fifty years ago, Bishop Butler, the author of the famous Analogy, a man of great reasoning power, of accurate and logical habits of thought, put forth the opinion that no form of government could have a permanent. existence not possessing as essential parts a monarch and a state church. For a century this country has seen neither, and the permanency of our form of government is unquestioned. That the judgment of Butler was not hasty or inconsiderate we may feel assured; what then are the social factors which have rendered our form of government possible, and, being absent in his time, allowed so great a thinker to form so erroneous an opinion. These factors. are probably numerous, but by far the most important is the universality of education. So long as the advantages of education are shut off from the many, the responsibilities of government must rest on the shoulders of the few. A democratic form of government is possible only to an educated people. Democracy with ignorance means anarchy.

In this country then the public and private schools must be regarded not only as possessing a high social and moral value, but as being of the first importance politically, in rendering possible and giving permanency to democratic institutions. The question here proposed is: Do the schools of this country, public and private, recognize the enormous power they possess, and do they endeavor to exercise this power to the end of securing the best government possible, and of promoting the material well-being of all classes?

As civilization advances, and population increases, as the machinery of government becomes more and more intricate, and the adjustments and relationships of its parts more complex, the study of the laws and principles by which society is held together becomes more and more important. In the more primitive state the relations existing between men are so simple and obvious as not

to require investigation; and even after some progress is made, the sparsity of population, and the ease with which the limited wants of the people can be satisfied do not as yet necessitate an investigation of the laws which govern the production and distribution of wealth. But as progress still goes on; as invention and discovery give new powers to man, and increase the powers he already possesses, causing the forces of nature to do work formerly done by muscles and sinews; as the division of labor greatly increases production with diminished toil; as distinct classes arise, such as agricultural, commercial, manufacturing, and professional; as the necessity is created for an army, navy, and police force, for judges, lawyers, and governors; the great number and variety of the parts of which society is composed, make it more and more difficult to preserve the whole in equilibrium, and gives rise to a system of laws and principles known as political economy.

There is no branch of education, beyond the most primary, so necessary and suitable for universal study as political economy. It is necessary, because it is ruinous to the interests of society to leave it to the investigation of specialists. It treats of matters which affect selfish interests, and its slow progress in the past is mainly due to the fact that, where its bases are true and its investigations are accurate and searching, it discovers wrongs that need redress, and unjust institutions which for generations were considered just and which antiquity has almost made sacred; prejudices are aroused and the economists, often startled at their own conclusions, seek less radical solutions. Investigations in astronomy seldom arouse prejudices, at least not in our day. Discoveries in electricity or optics are not antagonistic to selfish interests. Advances in mathematical knowledge do not lesson the unjust gains of a great and powerful class. That science which often traces want and misery, enforced idleness and brutalizing conditions, to monopoly and privilege is not likely to make progress till it has become popularized.

Furthermore, it is suitable to general investigation. Before one can commence the study of optics, electricity, astronomy, etc., he must have acquired a considerable amount of mathematical knowledge, and possess, or have access to, a large number of costly instruments. In the correct study of geology, botany, or zoology, many technical expressions are employed, and excursions must be

made to collect specimens or examine phenomena. The study of chemistry requires a complex system of symbolical writing in order to formulate the changes which take place in the various reactions. But the study of political economy requires none of these things, Its terminology is, with slight limitations of meaning, that of ordinary language. The phenomena to be observed are within reach, are, in fact, continually presented to us, and the results arrived at by deductive reasoning can easily be verified by comparison with the facts of actual experience, introducing or eliminating conditions which may or may not form factors of the investigations.

"How shall we be fed," "wherewithal shall we be clothed," are the questions with which political economy attempts to deal, and since food and clothing are the first requisites of life, political economy is the basis of social science; as well might we try to build a house without laying a foundation as to endeavor to arrive at just conclusions on questions relating to the latter without a knowledge of the former. Therefore in this land of political freedom, with its manhood suffrage, it is of the first importance that every citizen should qualify himself for the right employment of this freedom, for the intelligent and conscientious exercise of this suffrage, by making himself acquainted with the fundamental principles of political economy. To enable him to do this should be a chief object of our educational institutions.

Some boys are fitted for a profession; some for an agricultural, some for a commercial existence; but all are to be citizens, all are to have a share in the government of thier country; hence while each is being taught those special branches that bear on his profession, all should be taught that common branch which bears. on the duties of true citizenship. How often does one hear in discussions on such questions as "the free coinage of silver," the protective tariff," "the issue of paper money," arguments put forward which would never have been heard if their authors. had been acquainted with the most elementary text-book on political economy. Does not the exploded fallacy known as the "Mercantile Theory," turn up in the arguments not only of public discussion, but on the public platform, in the newspapers, and even in legislative assemblies? Is it not strange that men will give opinions off-hand on economic questions, who would hesitate to express an opinion on the undulatory theory of the propagation

of light or on the nebular hypothesis, though of the latter questions they know considerably more than of the former? Nay! will not even a senator know something of the rings of Saturn, and the precession of the equinoxes, though happily both are beyond the sphere of his legislation, and yet have a very indistinct notion of the "incidence of taxation," or of the law of "supply and demand" as applied to international exchange? Are we not constantly reminded of the words of Oxenstern addressed to his "Go see for yourself, my son, with what little wisdom the world is governed."

son:

The study of political economy tends to the fostering of a healthy public spirit. In most other studies the object sought after is the direct benefit of the indivdual, and from his very school days the boy learns to feel the power of that keen competition, which is said to be the life of trade, but which unbridled and without the counteracting effect of sympathetic coöperation and interdependence becomes the merciless Juggernaut of modern civilization. All studies having for their aim the fitting of the individual to play a successful part in the struggle for life, induce to some extent a spirit of egotism; but that study which treats of the well-being of the whole people, which makes the class, society, the nation its unit, which endeavors to grapple with social evils and to solve the Sphinx riddles which modern civilization presents, is in its essence altruistic. There is no branch of secular education which better fits a man for true citizenship and creates a juster appreciation of his duties and responsibilities towards his fellowmen. The boy cannot be too early taught the lesson that he does not live for himself alone, that real happiness is incompatible with selfishness: that just as the true knight in the days of romance went forth to overthrow oppression, quell disorder, and suppress abuses, strong in the approving smile of some fair lady; so the knightly spirit in all ages, setting aside selfish indulgence will find its fullest development in striving for the abolition of human injustice, and the amelioration of human misery, and even a goddess shall smile upon his efforts.

To secure these ends political economy should be taught in our high schools and academies, and in all schools where pupils of sufficient age and advancement for such study are found. The subject can be presented in an interesting manner, avoiding as far as possible contentious questions, viewing present political issues