E.—s.

In Edinburgh children are admitted to school for the first time only on two occasions during the y ear —namely, in September (the beginning of the school-year) and in March (the middle of the year). In British Columbia they are now admitted only at the beginning of the school-year (September). Our practice of admitting young children at any time during the three terms imposes additional work upon the teachers, and is not advantageous to the children. We should, I think, consider the advisability of limiting the initial admission of children to school to the first two weeks of each term. All the children admitted during the fortnight would then form a group that could be taught together through the primer classes. No restriction would be placed on the admission at any time of children who have already been enrolled at a school and have later transferred to another district. The work done by the New Zealand infant-teachers for many years deserves commendation, and in most respects compares very favourably with what I have seen in other countries. Their methods are modern and in line with those in operation in the best schools elsewhere. The charts, diagrams, and other teaching aids I saw reminded me again and again of what I have seen so many times in infant-rooms in New Zealand. Our infant-teachers should, however, give increased attention to singing and to suitable dramatization, both of which form a very important part of infant work, but are not so efficient with us as they are generally in England. Handwork has a considerable place in the curriculum of English infant-schools, the nature of the occupations in each school depending largely upon the views of the headmistress and the special qualifications of the staff, and to some extent on the type of district. I understand that the articles made by the children are sold to them at the cost of the material, and that teachers have to keep detailed accounts of the stocks received and the money paid in by the children. The usual types of handwork taken in London are as follows : — By children 3 to 6 years of age — Drawing : With chalk or crayon on boards or paper. Painting : With brushes and poster paint. Paper-cutting. Toy-making : Using waste material. Modelling : Using plasticene, clay, or a mixture of flour and salt. By children 6 to 8 years of age— Drawing : Painting, modelling. Weaving : Taken only in correlation with projects ; sometimes considered too mechanical and complicated. Card looms and wooden looms are used for weaving with wool, raffia, and coloured cottons. Needlework : Using canvas, " Iris " cloth. MEDICAL INSPECTION, DENTAL CARE, CLINICS, MEALS, AND MILK. Practically everywhere children receive medical inspection and dental treatment at the schools or in the clinics built by the education authority. Rooms are provided for the use of the doctor, the nurses, and the dentists. As a rule these officers are employed full-time by the Education Board or Committee, but occasionally the doctors are in private practice and attend the schools once or oftener each week. In a London borough I saw the block of buildings the education authority had erected for use as a clinic ; here parents may consult the school medical officer or specialists for eye, ear, nose, and throat, as well as for orthopaedics ; the staff includes nurses and masseuses. When glasses are prescribed for pupils they are supplied at a uniform price, irrespective of their individual cost. Meals : In many of the schools in Great Britain, Denmark, and America, provision has been made for the supply of meals, for which, except in special circumstances, the pupils pay. In two of its special schools I visited, Manchester provides a meal for one penny, and at a central school, for sevenpence. Leeds can supply meals for threepence each. In the East Suffolk area schools a good meal is supplied for one shilling per pupil per week. In some places the supply of meals is under the control of a committee appointed by the education authority : in others it is the private concern of the caretaker. Milk : The supply of milk to school-children is general throughout England and Scotland, the pupils paying a halfpenny per day for one-third of a pint in a sealed bottle. I was told that the milk is supplied free when ordered by the school medical officer (if the parents cannot pay). According to the Annual Report for 1934 of the Chief Medical Officer of the Board of Education, Dr. Arthur MacNalty, it is stated that under the scheme introduced on Ist October, the number of children receiving milk on payment increased at first from 900,000 to 2,650,000, and between November, 1931, and March, 1935, the number of children receiving free meals doubled. In Leeds twelve-year-old school-girls now weigh nearly 6 lb. more than in 1933, and twelve-year-old boys nearly 4 lb. more. Places as far apart as Wallsend, Gravesend, Lewes, and Bath have taken statistics over the same period and similar general improvement is shown. One of the reasons given for 85,000 children in London failing to avail themselves of the milk in schools " scheme is that girls in secondary schools refuse milk, saying that it will make them fat. (Sunday Times, 15/12/35.) EDUCATION OF CRIPPLED CHILDREN AND PHYSICALLY DEFECTIVE CHILDREN. In all the larger cities considerable attention is given to the education of crippled children. In London the children who cannot travel by public vehicles are conveyed to special schools in a fleet of seventy-two motor-ambulances. Those so afflicted that they have to bs in hospital are taught there by London County Council teachers.

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