rmanent and
honourable career than it has been in the past. Once again, it is not
unreasonable to ask--How will a Dublin Parliament be able to provide the
necessary funds? An extra annual sum of roughly L300,000 is required, in
addition to a further sum of about L330,000 to meet non-recurring
expenditure. These are, admittedly, moderate estimates. The matter,
anyway, is now ripe for settlement, and procrastination can only
aggravate the financial difficulty. So far as the educational problem is
concerned, it is a manifest obligation upon the Nationalist Party to
outline their proposals for the redress of these grievances, and to
indicate the means by which they can be carried out, before a separate
Legislature is set up for the people of Ireland.

Within the scope of these few pages it is not possible to comprise all
the aspects of modern Irish Education which are worthy of discussion.
What are most urgently needed to-day are the necessary funds to continue
the good work which is being done, and to introduce the reforms that
have been sketched above. Parsimony in educational matters is the most
wasteful of all misplaced thrift. Let the reformers be dealt with wisely
and generously, and the harvest will exceed even the expectations of
those who are working most hopefully upon the problem. Withhold the
funds on some niggardly and mistaken principle of petty economy, and the
present progress will be discouraged and the educational tree become
stunted in its growth. From an administrative point of view, nothing,
finance apart, would contribute more to the efficiency of Irish
Education than the amalgamation of the National and Intermediate
systems, as well as of the Technical work at present administered by the
Department of Agriculture and Technical Education, under one Board. The
method of examination by the Department is far sounder than that which
is forced upon the Intermediate Board by the Acts of Parliament under
which it works. In the case of science, the two are to be seen working
to-day side by side in the Secondary Schools, to the undoubted benefit
of the scientific course, which enjoys a double subsidy from the State,
and is subject to the superior method of examination by the Department,
being treated as a detached subject and the candidates being passed _en
bloc_. On the other hand, the obsolete method of examination by the
Board tends to the serious disadvantage of the classical curriculum, the
grants being ma