that the schools are not more particularly denominational than they are. A teacher of one belief should teach in a school of that belief. A teacher cannot be expected to teach a code of religion which is not in accordance with his belief. Unless religion is taught according to a man's own belief, he cannot carry that force into the teaching which he would otherwise do." (1385–6.)

The Rev. J. N. Somerville (Rector of Holy Trinity, Green Island) expressed himself as being "in favour of the present system because of the influence that managers have on the parents to get them to send their children to school.

With a few exceptions those people who are outside of the influence of the Church are careless about the education of their children." "I mean by the Church the whole Christian Church, not a denomination. It is the only system which will keep up the attendance at school." (1435.)

Mr. J. R. Williams, M.A. Oxford (Inspector of Schools), considered the existing association between religion and morality, as represented in the ministers who manage the schools, and elementary education, invaluable, and likely to be necessary in the best interests of the people for an indefinite time. At present its value varied considerably with the personal influence of the manager, and with the attention he gave to the school, but it was always something, and disconnection would be a moral loss to the schools, which such advantages as removal of denominational friction, increased supervision, and improved organisation would by no means compensate." (1464) Mr. Wellesley Bourke (solicitor, and formerly Member of the Legislative Council), quoted a petition which had been extensively signed by the members of the Roman Catholic community. In this petition the following paragraphs occur:

Catholics regard the education of their children as a duty and right divinely transmitted to them-and for the State to deprive the parent of that right they regard as tyranny and State despotism. To Catholics education means a complete work, covering the growth of mind and heart, demanding instruction in matters secular and matters religious; the development of man's bodily, mental and moral faculties, which in the child must be strengthened and developed that they may be used for the end for which God gave them. Therefore it is that Catholics cannot and will not suffer their children to be forced into schools where either their moral development will be left to chance, or where it will be directed by teachers whose Protestant training has been one long course of fabulous misrepresentations and perversions of Catholic doctrine and practices. Catholics are not thereby inimical to State schools as such, but only to the manner in which State schools are generally conducted, a manner perilous to the Catholic faith.

It is but a vain delusion for any person, or any honestly intentioned body of persons, to pretend that education can, under existing circumstances, be given in any part of the world, freed from religious or irreligious training or bias, where

the youth have to be trained and taught by persons professing or not professing religious belief; and Catholics will not allow themselves to be blinded by such a delusion. While Catholics do not pretend to believe that all religions are equally good, still they are ready to admit that the teaching of any form of the Christian religion is better for the good of society and of the State than that no religion at all should be taught in the schools of this island—and to that end, for the good of society, they advocate the continuance of denominational elementary schools in this island." (2634.)

The Jamaica Union of Teachers passed, in 1898, a resolution that the present system of elementary education in Jamaica "should remain as at present, with such modifications as may be considered necessary." (Appendix, No. 17.)

(2) Does education tend to make the rising generation disinclined for manual labour, especially in agriculture?

Inspector McCrea (in charge of the Constabulary Division of Clarendon) said that "education tended to detract from the dignity of labour. The youth of the country were looking forward to positions in shops, and, if they did not obtain them, they went to swell the idle class." (889.)

Mr. Jas. W. Mitchell (Custos of Clarendon) said that "the system of education had unfitted the people for their station in life. He agreed with the complaint that the people turned from agriculture and wanted to be clerks." (926.)

Mr. George Nash (storekeeper, of Mandeville) said that "there was a distaste among the younger men for hard work, there was a distaste for labour. All aspired to clerkships and none to wield a hoe. It was not the school system which was entirely at fault. It was the result of the desire of the children to emulate their betters, and it caused them to aspire too much. . . . Some of the distaste probably arose from the fact that the present education gave no knowledge whatever of practical training. That might answer for some of it, but not for all." (959–961, 962.)

The Hon. J. P. Clark (Custos of the Parish of Manchester) said that "very often the education seemed to take them out of their sphere of life and created a contempt for agricultural labour, although the young fellows who had refused work were, he knew, hard pressed for a living. Their fathers and mothers would labour in the fields, but they would never dream of it. He was not condemning education, of course, but the question was whether it was carried too far or not." (1027.)

Mr. Arthur Levy (Advocate) gave his evidence "not as a specialist on education but as a citizen, and his statements were suggested by things which had struck him. Education

ought to improve the agricultural prospects of the country, but it had not done so. Its principal product was a hybrid, a man whose education did not make him intellectually useful, but at the same time a man who was too good for agricultural

labour. There is a hybrid class which is neither an educated class nor a labouring class, but one which produces a vagabond. It makes him above labouring." (1030, 1037.)

Mr. T. S. Tomlinson (shopkeeper and member of the Westmoreland Parochial Board) said: "Too much of the State's money is spent on book-learning. I would have all the subjects taught which are now in the Code, but I would teach the children less of each. In the time thus saved I would give them some practical training. He noticed an indisposition to agricultural work on the part of children who had been through the elementary schools. Their object is to become something higher by means of education, and they consequently ignore the very source of the country's income. Parents can scarcely command their children to the ground. If the children are made to know, while they are at school, that they have to work, it would help at once to check and curb this indisposition to agricultural labour." (1402.)

66

Mr. Besley (shoemaker, of Lucca) said: "When the children have a certain amount of education they do not care about going to a trade. They just go idling unless they can get into shops as clerks. Very few wish to be shoemakers. I have only had one for some time now." (1449.)

Mr. Rattigan (collector of taxes for Hanover) said: "The present system of education is far from satisfactory to the public, who observe that an ignorance and false pride is the outcome of elementary education only, when the young man from school seeks employment in offices, stores, etc., and is positively ashamed of honest and honourable manual labour of any description, and the young woman prefers a rocking chair and a piano, and is also ashamed to cook or to be seen in a laundry." (1484.)

Mr. Calder (Resident Magistrate for Trelawny) said that he thought the present system of education had been an entire failure. "One has only to visit a school to see that the children are taught by rote like parrots. The people are being taught to think that they are better than their fathers, that it is a disgrace to handle a pickaxe and hoe. They want to be clerks, teachers, or in the Government service. The girls are taught to think it a disgrace to do what their mothers did before them." (1742.)

The Rev. P. J. Hall (Rector of Brown's Town), asked by the Archbishop whether he thought that education was lifting the children above their station, replied: "We find that there are many who will not go and work in the field. Agriculture is certainly not their domain after they have passed the fifth standard. It seems to me that we spend a great deal of the £70,000 devoted to education to spoil our labour market." (1815.)

Mr. R. L. Young (planter, of Tobolski) said, in answer to a question whether "the people are more or less willing to labour now than they were before education was so extensive," "I think they are rather against agriculture. They think it is bemeaning, and they scoff at work in the field. The country man is looked upon as a bumpkin when he comes to town. The town youth

looks upon agriculture as little less than disgraceful to him." (1885.)

Mr. C. N. Dias (druggist and storekeeper, of Morant Bay), said: "With regard to the results of the present system, I find when a boy leaves school, he thinks himself an educated man who ought not to follow agricultural pursuits The parents of such a boy have always made their living by agriculture, but he thinks it infra dig., if he has been to school, to go into the field to work." (2377-8.)

A rather different view was taken by Mr. T. C. Garrett (Superintendent of the Public Works Department), who said that during the whole 28 years which he had spent in Jamaica he had never had any difficulty in getting labour. He had had trouble as to the quality and quantity, but not as to the getting of men. The younger generation, which was rather more educated, did not care to work. It was not exactly that those who had no education were the real labourers, but there were many of those who left school with a good education who looked rather for pen-and-ink work. He believed, however, that when such youths found that they could not get any but manual labour, they would return to it. He would not by any means stop education because of this preference for more intellectual labour. He did not think much could be done to encourage a love for manual labour by training the hand and eye in the schools. They would have to go back to home influence. He did not think that it was the system of education which was altogether at fault." (975-6.)

The Rev. H. L. Webster (Baptist Minister, of Montego Bay) said: "Education has not, even under the present system, turned away the minds of the people from industrial and agricultural occupation. It is the want of education that has done it." (1630.)

Mr. L. C. Shirley, J.P. (proprietor and planter, of Duncans, and Chairman of the Parochial Board of Trelawny), said that he did not find any unwillingness to labour which he could attribute to education. (1813.)

The Rev. G. House (Baptist Minister, of St. Ann's Bay) said that he did not believe the people were as unwilling to labour as had been said. "The Jamaica labourers are not the lazy, worthless set they are put down to be, if they are treated and paid well. If they are paid sufficiently, you would not find a better class of labour anywhere." (1988.)

Special interest will be found to attach to the evidence of the following witnesses, who also referred to the above questions, but from a somewhat different standpoint.

Mr. C. A. Cover (Headmaster of Rusea School) said: "The effect of education on industrial and agricultural occupations has certainly been in some cases to lead to a contempt of these employments. I think it is due to the fact that the people were tied down to agriculture in former times, and naturally there is a revulsion. The people should therefore be taught to see that there is scope in agriculture for their highest intelligence. I do not think the number of idlers has increased

as an outcome of education. In some cases it is due to the folly of the parents, who have kept their children at home as gentlemen-so called and so for a time, at any rate, they become idlers. I think, however, they have been eventually forced into an occupation of some kind. The idea of the parents, which is in one respect laudable enough, is to better the condition of their children; but the error is made of thinking that they cannot be bettered by returning to agricultural employment.' (1504.)

Mr. A. N. Dixon, J.P. (retired land surveyor and planter, of Lime Hall), said that the younger generation were generally more unwilling to accept agricultural work. But he added: "I do not attribute that to education at all, but rather to a general upward movement all through the world. As time goes by, there is a general levelling up. It will rectify itself in time." (2076.)

Mr. R. M. Cocking (clerk to the Parochial Board of St. Mary), asked by the Archbishop whether " within the last ten years he had seen a change for the better or worse in the willingness of the young folks to work," said: "I think the people have a great deal of ambition, which naturally arises from their being educated. That ambition is keeping them from their agricultural work, and they are looking more towards becoming teachers, parsons, or clerks. The general feeling is against (agricultural) work, and education is responsible for it, although I am not against education for one moment. Education has created an ambition to go higher." (2081.)

(3) Is it desirable or practicable to have more Agricultural Teaching in Elementary Schools?

The Rev. Wm. Griffith (in charge of the United Methodist Free Church in Kingston) said that "he believed that there was a misconception in the popular mind as to what was meant by agricultural training in the elementary schools. The parents believed that it meant going into a field with cutlass and hoe. That would be a dirty piece of business. The children would tear and spoil their clothes and be unfitted for study. But he could not understand why the elder children should not be taught the practice and theory of horticulture and agriculture without dirtying themselves at all. The real difficulty was the lack of competent teachers. Horticulture could be taught in the backyard of a school by plants in boxes, and agriculture might be adequately taught in a plot of land about a quarter of an acre in extent. The children would be very much interested in the work, and the criticism of the parents would be disarmed." (761.)

Mr. H. M. Farquharson, J.P. (storekeeper and proprietor at Black River), considered that "the present system of education should be at once considerably modified. The education now being given to the people does not teach them to be useful members of society. The capabilities of the ordinary negro, at