local taxes are self-imposed, and in the cheerfulness with which they are paid for "additional school facilities."

More attention is also paid to the election of proper men for the highly responsible office of School Trustees. The most upright and the wisest men in a district should be chosen to fill those offices.

A glance at the extracts from the reports of the County Superintendents will show, with a very few regretable exceptions, an announcement of good condition, and progress so constant as to be monotonous; but it is a blessed monotony, and that single tone is one of sweet music which we would not wish to disturb.

The one great want in the public schools is a greater attention on the part of teachers and other authorities to moral instruction-to character building. To turn out good, honest, clean-living men and women, is that which should be, not merely acknowledged, but felt to be the principal end and aim of the public schools; that nothing should come before or be allowed to interfere with this good design; that intellectual education should be subordinated to it, and that this instruction should be not merely incidental, coming to the front on all suitable occasions, but it should have its regular and frequent place on the programme of exercises. It should never be omitted or postponed in favor of anything else.

INADEQUATE COMPENSATION OF COUNTY SUPERINTENDENTS.

Another great defect in the system of the public schools, is the fact that in many of the counties the Superintendents of the schools are poorly paid; so poorly, indeed, that we can scarcely speak of their slender stipends as pay at all. The County Superintendent should be able to give—and

should be required to give-the whole of his time to the duties of his office. The County Superintendent is the most important officer connected with the system of public education. And further, there is no officer of the county of greater consequence to the vital and permanent interests of the county: not the County Clerk, not the Sheriff, not even the Superior Judge. I am aware that this will sound like a bold proposition, and it will not be received with a ready assent; but it is true nevertheless.

A little reflection will convince an enlightened mind of its truth. Those officers who are generally regarded as the important officers of the county, and most of whom receive liberal, not to say lucrative compensation, are mainly engaged about our property, and the administration of criminal law; they are concerned with the temporary, evanescent affairs of a single generation; their acts have rarely consequences extending beyond a single generation. But the County Superintendent is the head of a system of the public education of the county. It is for him to supervise, control and lead those institutions which are instructing and building the characters of the people. The pupils of to-day will be the people of to-morrow; and the well-being of the people and the perpetuity of our liberties depend upon the character and enlightenment of the people. More than upon any other factor do these depend upon the schools. And this officer is the head of the schools. If the head be poorpoor of himself or poor as an officer by reason of his fettersit is likely that the body will be poor. But if the Superindent be an active, vigilant, enthusiastic officer, and an experienced teacher, no limit may be placed to the good which his services may bring to the public.

In every county the Superintendent of the schools

should receive a decent and comfortable support, so that he may be contented, and able to give his whole time to his duties. His reasonable traveling expenses should be reimbursed to him. Certainly they should not be deducted from his salary, which, as said before, should be decent and comfortable. He should have certain days fixed for duty in his office, and the entire residue of his time should be given to continuous visitation of the schools. Then the teachers and Trustees would know that they were being continually looked after. The teachers would feel that they had a professional friend to advise and sympathize with them-one capable of instructing and helping them. His frequent visits and constant supervision would create and preserve thorough organization; would infuse into the system all the new and valuable improvements evolved by experience everywhere, and would make the system consistent and homogeneous. His efforts would be those of an equalizer, to raise the lowest school on to a level with the highest, and to make them everywhere good.

It will be objected that many counties are too poor to pay their School Superintendent a salary which will engage his whole time in their service; that they are too sparsely settled, and that they must wait till more money shall have been invested within their borders. The ready answer is that to have good schools in the county is the best invitation to settlement and investment; with population comes wealth, the enhancement of existing property, and the production of more. Let it be well understood that any county, even the remotest and least developed, has superior schools, and the fact will give an immediate and great impulse to migration thither. Now, this great desideratum may be had by simply paying one officer a decent salary.

The people can impose a local tax on themselves for additional school facilities, and surely no school facilities can be so valuable as a good Superintendent. But I prefer to invite the attention of the Legislature to this important matter, and leave the details of accomplishing this great reform to their wisdom.

It is to be regretted that there are counties now amply able to properly compensate their County Superintendents who, nevertheless, neglect to do so.

The County Superintendent of Schools, being the head of the system of education therein, should be ex officio President of the County Board of Education. He should preside over the meetings of the Board, and have power to appoint one of the other members as recorder of its proceedings. All the book, papers, records and other archives of the Board, should be kept in his office, in his custody, and under his control. The same should be true of the City Superintendent in his elations tor the City Board of Education. It is anomalous and unseemly that the head of the system within the jurisdiction of the Board should be the Secretary of the Board, or a member without a vote-as happens sometimes.

TO RETAIN TEACHERS IN THE PROFESSION.

Among many encouraging things connected with the present condition of public instruction there is one of an entirely different aspect. I refer to the fact that it is difficult to retain experienced teachers in the service of the State. Experience in all callings is of so high importance, and the recognition of that fact so time-honored and general, that to speak of it with emphasis seems to be a solecism. Could

any Government be found which could rest content under a condition of things where its soldiers and sailors were in the habit of leaving the service just as soon as they became masters of the duties of their profession? But such is the lamentable fact in the ranks of public school teachers. And it is not a new proposition to the reflecting mind that the teachers of the public schools are in no degree inferior in importance to the army and navy, or to any other branch of the public service.

Here then is a fact to give rise to grave apprehension. We spend much time and money at Normal Schools, Teachers' Institutes and at Educational Conventions to prepare young teachers for the duties of their profession, and yet, at the end of a few years, the great majority of them have abandoned it. It has been true heretofore, and doubtless always will be true, that many persons take up the work of teaching as a temporary resource. But this by no means will account for the large defection. There are very many persons who have entered the profession because they were fond of teaching, and they did so with the full intent to make it a life work, and yet, after some years of earnest endeavor, they find that they have been buffeting the waves of disappointment unsuccessfully; the better time coming has not come ; they sink under discouragement and go at something else.

This is true of both sexes, but notably of the men. The average salaries of the men teachers are considerably higher than those of the females, and yet is among men that there is the greatest falling off after they have entered the profession, and it is among men that there is a proportional deficiency among the applicants before Boards of Education and at Normal Schools. The men are not attracted to nor