party this time gained the ascendancy, their first "liberal" action
being to take away the allowance granted to the Industrial Schools, and
reversing as much as possible the policy of their predecessors. It would
be waste of space to comment upon the doings of the Board during the
past ten years otherwise than to summarise them. The Liberal party have
maintained their ascendancy, and they have provided the town with a set
of schools that cannot be equalled by any town in the kingdom, either
for number, magnificence of architecture, educational appliance,
high-class teachers, or (which is the most important) means for the
advancement of the scholars, to whom every inducement is held out for
self-improvement, except in the matter of religion, which, as nearly as
possible, is altogether banished from the curriculum. At the end of
1833, the thirty completed schools provided accommodation for 31,861
children, 10,101 boys, 9,053 girls, and 12,707 infants, but the number
of names on the books reached nearly 40,000. Other schools are being
built, and still more are intended; and, as the town increases, so must
this necessary expenditure, though, at first sight, the tax on the
ratepayers is somewhat appalling. In 1878 the "precept" was for L46,500;
in 1879, L44,000; in 1880, L39,000; in 1881, L42,000; in 1882, L48,000;
in 1883, L54,000; in 1884, L55,000. The receipts and expenditure for the
half-year ended 25th March, 1884, gives the following items:--Balance in
hand 29th September, 1883 L10,522 1s. 7-1/2d.; rates (instalment of
precept), L27,250; maintenance--grants from Committee of Council on
Education, L9,866 18s. 4d.; school fees, L4,806 3s. 8d.; books, &c.,
sold, L223 18s. 6d.; rent of Board schools, L655 9s.; needlework sold,
L215 12s. 2d.; grant from Science and Art Department, L306 Os. 3d.;
total, L16,074 1s. 11d.; scholarships, L114 13s.; sundries, L44 Os. 3d.;
total income, L54,004 16s. 9-1/2d. The following was the expenditure:
Repayment of loans, &c., L11,016 13s, 6d.; maintenance, L30,040 16s. 1d.
(including L23,300, salaries of teachers); scholarships, L126 13s. 3d.;
compulsion and management, L3,857 3s. 4d.; sundries, L28 4s.; amount
transferred from capital account, L30 1s. 10d.; balance in hand, L8,905
4s. 9-1/2d.; total, L54,004 16s. 9-1/2d.

A Central Seventh Standard Technical School has been originated through
the offer of Sir. George Dixon to give the use of premises in Bridge
Street, rent free for five ye