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large proportion of grocers' licenses. Among the smaller towns which "went dry" were Buckie, Cullen, Kirkintilloch, Sanquhar, Lerwick, Stornoway, Stromness and Wick. The contest was fought by the Temperance party on a prohibition programme, and its in- fluence was thrown against the limitation resolution; the result was, therefore, rather a repudiation of prohibition than an indica- tion of satisfaction with existing licensing conditions. The Act of 1913 provided for further polls, on a requisition by electors, in Nov. and Dec. 1923, but the experience of the poll of 1920 made it clear that modifications were required in the Act, especially in the defini- tion of an "area "as a single ward in the larger burghs, which must be treated as a whole in order to secure that any reduction of licenses shall be more equally distributed than was possible in 1920.

Education. A large amount of attention has been devoted to education, with a corresponding increase in public expenditure, both national and local. The English Education Act of 1918, which marks an era in State provision for education, was accompanied by the Education (Scotland) Act of the same year. The Act swept away the system of school-boards, created in 1872, in favour of the prin- ciple of a larger area for educational administration than a parish. The new administrative body created by the Act is known by the awkward name of an Educational Authority. Five large burghs, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Aberdeen, Dundee and Leith, were made separate educational areas; the number has since been reduced to four by the amalgamation of Leith with Edinburgh. Elsewhere, the area is the county, including the burghs within its bounds, and the . Secretary for Scotland was empowered to make, by order, electoral divisions within the areas, to define the number of members of each educational authority, and to apportion the representatives among the divisions of the area. Electors to educational authorities are the persons registered as local government electors under the Represen- tation of the People Act (1918). Voting is conducted on the prin- ciple of proportional representation; each elector has one transfer- able vote. School management committees, acting under an educa- tion authority and including representatives of parents and of teach- ers, exercise general powers of supervision and management, but have no control over finance, or over the appointment or dismissal of teachers. Education authorities are empowered to expend public money not only on the maintenance of schools but also on the pro- vision of food and of books for the children (including books for gen- eral reading), and they may make grants to pay travelling expenses of young persons resident at a distance from the nearest interme- diary or secondary school, and may give assistance to a qualified person attending a university or training college. They are bound to provide free primary, intermediary and secondary education in all districts, but may maintain a limited number of fee-paying schools and may also make contributions to certain schools not under their jurisdiction. Religious instruction may be given in the schools, but no child whose parents object to such instruction is thereby to lose any other advantage of the school. Voluntary or denominational schools may be (and nearly all have been) transferred to educational authorities and managed as public schools, their teachers being appointed by the local authority and approved as to character and religious belief by representatives of the church or body by whom the school was conducted. In such transferred schools, the time devoted to religious instruction is not less than it was under the former management. Voluntary schools, not thus transferred, are not eligible for grants from the Education Fund ; new voluntary schools may be established by educational authorities under con- ditions similar to those affecting transferred schools. An educational authority administers the Education Fund of the area, arising from Government grants or loans, supplemented by its own education rate, which is fixed by the authority and levied by the parish councils of the area. The Act also extended the school age to 15 years and severely limited the employment of children of school age, prohibiting the employment of children under 15 in factories, workshops, mines or quarries, and forbidding street trading by persons under seven- teen. A system of continuation schools was also provided for. An attendance of 320 hours annually in a continuation school may be required from all young persons up to the age of 18, unless their education is otherwise provided for, and instruction in such schools is to include English and general education, instruction for special forms of employment, and physical culture; when the scheme comes into operation, employers will be bound to afford facilities for an attendance of 320 hours, exclusive of hours between 7 P.M. and 8 A.M., unless hours within these limits are sanctioned by the Scottish Edu- cation Department, the approval of which is also required for the exercise of a large number of the powers conferred by the Act.

The operation of the Act of 1918, contemporaneously with a large increase in the salaries of teachers, has resulted in a vast increase of expenditure. The estimate for ordinary public education in Scot- land for the year ending March 31 1911, was 2,253,725, and for the year ending March 31 1921, 6,877,220, and to this increase have to be added the large sums raised by local rates, which have risen pro- portionally. The system of assessment, based on house rent, and divided, in almost equal proportions, between proprietor and tenant, is generally regarded as being no longer suitable to the circumstances, the value of the house occupied by a ratepayer not affording a satis- factory test of his ability to pay, and a demand has been made for

the substitution of a local income tax; some reform of the system of local rates has been promised by the Secretary for Scotland. In addition to State grants for elementary and secondary education, financial assistance to the Scottish universities has been increased from an estimate of 93,000 in the year ending March 31 1911 to an estimate of 195,000 for the year ending March 31 1921, besides a share of a non-recurring grant to universities and other institutions adversely affected by the war. Private benefactions, including grants from the Carnegie Trustees, have provided funds for the in- stitution of new chairs and lectureships in all the universities, including chairs of Scottish History and Literature, French, German, Bacteriology, Organic Chemistry, Physiological Chem- istry, Mercantile Law and Engineering at Glasgow; chairs of Agriculture and Political Economy at Aberdeen; and chairs of French, German, Accounting and Business Method, Chemistry in relation to Medicine, Zoology, Forestry, Clinical Medicine, Bacteri- ology, Tuberculosis, Therapeutics and Psychiatry at Edinburgh.

Evidence as to social conditions is available in reports of Govern- ment departments. The Mental Deficiency and Lunacy (Scotland) Act of 1913 reconstituted the existing Commissioners of Lunacy as a General Board of Control and amended the Lunacy Laws. The Board's first Annual Report (for 1914) showed that there were 19,557 insane persons in Scotland, of whom 16,870 were paupers. In 1919 the total was 17,580, of whom 14,562 were paupers. The latest Report of the Board draws attention to the decrease, pointing out that the average total for the five years from 1911 to 1915 was 18,537, and for the five years 1916-20, 18,132, and remarks that " it may be assumed that but for the influence of the war the numbers in the last quinquennium would, have been at least 19,883 instead of 18,132." The Prison Commissioners, in their Report for 1919, state that the influence of war conditions was ceasing to operate at the end of that year. The total number of persons committed to prison in 1918 was 9,773 as compared with 14,505 in 1917 and 43,535 in 1914. The figures for 1918 are the lowest on record; there was a con- tinued decrease in the first four months of 1919, but the total number of commitments for that year was 11,725: similarly, the judicial statistics for 1919 show an increase of 26-9% in the number of per- sons dealt with in criminal courts, as compared with the previous year, the numbers being 80,152 in 1918 and 101,687 in 1919. The total for 1911 was 155,537. The most satisfactory feature of the year 1919 was a decrease (from 10,772 to 9,176) in the number of persons dealt with in juvenile courts, as compared with 1918; the numbers of such persons had risen during the war from 10,761 in 191 1 to 11,851 in 1915 and 12,180 in 1917, a result attributed to the ab- sence of paternal control during the war years.

Shipbuilding. The figures of production in Scottish shipbuild- ing for 1911 represented a considerable increase over 1909 and 1910, the number of vessels being 557 in 1911 against 450 in 1910, and the tonnage 671,624 against 420,250. These numbers exceeded the pre- vious record of production 757 vessels with a tonnage of 675,173 in 1907 because the I.H.P. (indicated horse power) figures were 742,299 in 1907 and 837,668 in 1911. The output for 1911 consisted chiefly of vessels of moderate size, and the types of vessels were very varied. The main increase was, naturally, in the Clyde area; the E. coast shipbuilding areas (the Forth, the Tay, the Dee and the Moray Firth) produced 144 vessels with a tonnage of 41,041 and I.H.P. 47,739 an increase of 13,183 tons and 17,31 1 I.H.P. upon 1910. In 1912, a fresh record was created, the total Scottish tonnage being 688,188, with I.H.P. 914,741, and in 1913 the figures rose to a ton- nage of 809,711 and I.H.P. 1,148,225. The Clyde output for 1913 was more than double that of any other British shipbuilding area, except the Tyne, and it exceeded the output of the Tyne by 317,000 tons; the advance since 1910 was the most remarkable in the whole history of Clyde shipbuilding, for the tonnage of 1910 had been nearly doubled in 1913; but the increasing cost of production caused some anxiety about the future. Among the larger vessels built before the outbreak of war were H.M.S. Conqueror," the largest battle- ship yet built on the Clyde, which was launched in 1911, and the liner "Aquitania," the largest vessel then built for the merchant serv- ice (tonnage 45,600, speed 23 knots), which was launched in 1913. In the seven months of 1914 which preceded the outbreak of war, the output showed a continuous decrease, and a period of depression was believed to be at hand, and from Aug. three of the largest yards had to devote practically their whole attention to naval construction. The total tonnage as published for 1914 was 460,258 with I.H.P. 496,120, but these figures are exclusive of the construction of war- ships and must be compared with the 1913 figures for mercantile con- struction, viz.: 692,601 tons with I.H.P. 649,240 a decrease of 232,343 tons and 153,120 I.H.P. The naval figures, now available, show that the outbreak of war had not merely checked the depression but had produced a fresh " boom " in Scottish shipbuilding. In 1915 mercantile construction amounted to a tonnage of 233,501, with I.H.P. 205,288 figures not far below the U.S.A. construction for the year although the yards were almost entirely controlled by Govern- ment, and merchant work was neglected. No separate Scottish figures for 1916 were published until after the close of the war, and, in 1917, the mercantile tonnage for the United Kingdom was a state secret. Mercantile construction had been, to a large extent, in abeyance until the end of 1916, but great activity was shown in this