Page:Showell's Dictionary of Birmingham.djvu/289

Rh 23,157; G. Heaton, 23,140; W. H. Greening, 22,881; and W. Warlow, 19,193. This election was fought with all the rancour of a political contest, Tory and Liberal being pitted against one another in the name of religion, the Book of Books being dragged through the mire of party warfare in the most outrageous manner, discreditable to both sides, and especially so to those teachers of the Gospel, who delighted in the almost blasphemons alliterations of "Bible and beer," "gin and Jesus," &c., so freely bandied about. The Liberal party this time gained the ascendancy, their first "liberal" action being to take away the allowance granted to the Industrial Schools, and reversing as much as possible the policy of their predecessors. It would be waste of space to comment upon the doings of the Board during the past ten years otherwise than to summarise them. The Liberal party have maintained their ascendancy, and they have provided the town with a set of schools that cannot be equalled by any town in the kingdom, either for number, magnificence of architecture, educational appliance, high-class teachers, or (which is the most important) means for the advancement of the scholars, to whom every inducement is held out for self-improvement, except in the matter of religion, which, as nearly as possible, is altogether banished from the curriculum. At the end of 1833, the thirty completed schools provided accommodation for 31,861 children, 10,101 boys, 9,053 girls, and 12,707 infants, but the number of names on the books reached nearly 40,000. Other schools are being built, and still more are intended ;and, as the town increases, so must this necessary expenditure, though, at first sight, the tax on the ratepayers is somewhat appalling. In 1878 the "precept" was for £46,500; in 1879, £44,000; in 1880, £39,000; in 1881, £42,000; in 1882, £48,000; in 1883, £54,000; in 1884, £55,000. The receipts and expenditure for the half-year ended 25th March, 1884, gives the following items:—Balance in hand 29th September, 1883. £10,522 1s. 7½d.; rates (instalment of precept), £27,250; maintenance—grants from Committee of Council on Education, £9,866 18s. 4d.; school fees, £4,806 3s. 81.; books, &c., sold, £223 18s. 6d.; rent of Board schools, £655 9s.; needlework sold, £215 12s. 2d.; grant from Science and Art Department, £306 0s. 3d.; total, £16,074 Is. lid.; scholarships, £114 13s.; sundries, £44 4s. 3d. ; total income, £54,004 16s. 9½d. The following was the expenditure: Repayment of loans, &e., £11,016 13s, 6d.; maintenance, £30,040 16s. Id. (including £23,300, salaries of teachers); scholarships, £126 13s. 3d.; compulsion and management, £3,857 3s. 4d. ; sundries, £28 4s.; amount transferred from capital account, £30 Is. l0d.; balance in hand, £8,905 4s. 9½d.; total, £54,004 16s. 9½d.

A Central Seventh Standard Technical School has been originated through the offer of Mr. George Dixon to give the use of premises in Bridge Street, rent free for five years, he making all structural alterations necessary to fit the same for the special teaching of boys from the Board Schools, who have passed the sixth standard, and whose parents are willing to keep their sons from the workshops a little longer than usual. The course of the two years' further instruction proposed, includes (besides the ordinary code subjects, the three R's) mathematic, theoretical, and practical mechanics, freehand, geometry, and model drawing, machine construction and drawing, chemistry and electricity, and the use ol the ordinary workshop tools, workshops being fitted with benches, lathes, &c., for the lads' use. The fee is 3d. per week, and if the experiment succeeds, the School Board at the end of the five years will, no doubt, take it up on a more extended scale.

Aston School Board.—The first election took place July 29, 1875, and, as in Birmingham, it was fought on