per child. New Hampshire has a small annual appropriation of this kind now, distributed to a limited number of towns. The method of distributing state school funds too often ignores the fact that to solve the problem of supporting schools in the smaller and poorer towns, the entire commonwealth must be considered the unit and so taxed that the rich may help the poor. To distribute a state tax according to valuation affords no relief to the poor town; to distribute such a tax according to the population, the number of inhabitants under a certain age, or the number of pupils enrolled in the schools, is as likely to work injustice as justice. Valuation and school attendance should both be influential elements in such distribution. More money to the towns would not of itself solve the educational problem. A proper expenditure of money is as important as increased resources. To provide the one without assurance of the other would be most unwise. Those familiar with conditions in the rural town where the schools have not expert supervision will probably agree that a very considerable percentage of the money used is wasted.

A state tax as proposed would tend to equalize salaries, and to increase them all along the line. According to the last published report of the department of public instruction of New Hampshire, the average wages of women teachers below the High School grade, including board, was $29.11. per month; fiftyfive (55) towns report a sum not exceeding $25.00 a month, the lowest being $13.50. These towns all desire the best teachers that can be obtained. Thus the great problem of the day is how can a ten-dollar teacher be secured for five dollars or less; for this I

can suggest no solution. More money must be available in some way in order that more efficient teachers may be placed in charge of our schools. But paying more money will not of itself make better teachers. The public must demand better work. When demanded, it will be forthcoming. But the demand for trained teachers will at once create a new problem: vis., where will the supply come from? Last year 524 of New Hampshire's teachers were reported as teaching for the first time; the same year our single normal school graduated about 50; the city training schools increased the number of trained teachers somewhat, but it was still a small fraction of the number of new teachers demanded. This state must provide in the near future more schools for professional preparation.

Money is needed not only for the payment of teachers but also for better buildings, better sanitation, better ventilation, apparatus, books, supplies. Many of our high schools are teaching science with no laboratory, no apparatus, with a text-book only. Many of our school boards are requiring text-books to be used until they are mere shreds and rags from legitimate and illegitimate use.

The changes in occupation and the drift to the cities have almost depopulated some of our rural towns. The schools have decreased in size, and, demanding no great executive ability or disciplinary power on the part of a teacher, but little real teaching is done in them. In 1903, of our 2166 public schools 425 ranged from six to twelve pupils; 118 contained fewer than six pupils each; 543 schools-more than one-fourth of all in the state, had twelve children or less in each. It would seem that a little business judgment would call

at once for the consolidation of many of these into neighboring schools, enabling school boards to secure better service and better equipment.

The solution of this problem will come in many towns by the establishment of a central school, properly graded, to which the children of the town will be conveyed at public expense.

The elimination of the small school, however, is by no means an easy thing. It presents many difficulties to the practical man as he becomes familiar with the rugged, natural features of our hill towns and the rugged human inhabitants thereof. The latter may be softened by a proper and tactful method of presenting the subject, the former frequently present insuperable objections. What matter if schools are but three miles apart if the mountain road connecting them is impassable for half the year! But even when there are no physical barriers, the people advance many objections which seem valid to them and which are entitled to consideration.

The objections usually raised are,

1. Depreciation of farm property.

I.

2. That it is too hard for small children to take a

long ride twice a day.

3. Necessary lack of parental care at noon intermission.

4. Irresponsibility and unreliability of persons employed to convey.

I pass over the first point as not relevant to the object in establishing or maintaining the school.

On the second point it may be said that it is easier for the child to ride three miles in a proper convey

ance than to walk one in inclement weather or "mud time."

The third objection is legitimate. If children are taken from home by the school authorities and kept for the day, these authorities should realize their responsibility for taking proper care of them. When carried to the village school, they should not be left to roam the streets or to spend their time in the grocery store. When collected in considerable numbers, a matron should be employed to take charge during the absence of the teacher. The physical and moral welfare of the child demands this, as well as a proper care of the school and school property.

The fourth objection is a vital one. None of us

would entrust our little ones to the care of a drunken driver whether to take them to school or to a picnic. That school board is derelict to its duty, that consolidates schools without regard to the rights of parents and the comfort and protection of the children.

The advantages to be obtained from discontinuing small schools and conveying children at the expense of the district are,—

I. Economy.

Transportation can be performed, usually, at less expense than a good teacher can be employed, and the money thus saved may be applied to making the enlarged school better in furnishings, equipment, and teaching.

2. Better teachers and equipment.

The best teachers cannot be induced to accept positions in the three-scholar or the five-scholar schools, even when public sentiment allows the school board to seek for them with the offer of sufficient salary. Con

solidation enables the board to pay better wages and hence to employ better teachers.

Consolidation, by lessening the number of schools. to be visited, enables the supervisor, school board, or superintendent, to make more frequent visits and to get into closer touch with pupil and teacher.

With a comfortable and regular conveyance, the weather, temperature, and bad roads cease to be important factors in causing absenteeism.

The pupil of the small school lacks that emulation and competition so essentially necessary to progress, which will be afforded by the larger school. This is true even when the teachers are equally competent. It has double weight when we consider that the better teachers are almost uniformly in charge of the larger schools.

Many towns are so situated that all children of the same town cannot be brought together, but some section can more conveniently be associated with a neighboring town; in such case town lines might well be disregarded and a graded school district be formed without reference to town lines. Under the state-tax plan, this would not complicate matters.

The greatest problem is the supervision of the rural school. Massachusetts has solved this problem in such a satisfactory way as to make her an example to be imitated. Her system of district supervision on the whole seems to be the best yet devised. Her sister states are trying to profit by her experience. In most of our towns, however, supervision by school boards is the only oversight given to the schools. It is not generally claimed by members of those boards that by virtue of election, they immediately become education