The Education Act of 1860 was superseded by the State Education Act of 1875, which came into operation on 1st January, 1876, and is still in force. When passed it was regarded as the most progressive Act in Australia. Its author was Mr. S. W. Griffith, the present Chief Justice of the Commonwealth, and he was the first Minister for Public Instruction. The first Under Secretary was Mr. C. J. Graham. On 31st December, 1875, there were 230 schools in operation, the aggregate enrolment for the year being 33,643, and the average attendance 16,887. The number of teachers employed was 595, and the total expenditure for the year was L83,219 14s. 9d. The new Act provided that the whole system of public instruction in Queensland, formerly administered by the Board of General Education, should be transferred to a department of the public service, to be called the Department of Public Instruction. The Act provided that one-fifth of the cost must be contributed locally in the first instance towards the purchase of a school site, the erection of the necessary buildings, and the providing of furniture; thereafter the State bore the whole expenditure. Thus the State defrayed the total cost of repairs and maintenance, renewals, additions, and the like. State aid to non-vested schools was withdrawn as from 31st December, 1880. In 1895 a resolution was agreed to by the Legislative Assembly in favour of the establishment of superior State schools with a view to providing higher education for children in towns and populous centres where grammar schools did not exist. The ultimate result of this action was the passing of the State Education Act Amendment Act of 1897, which gave the Governor in Council power to prescribe that any subjects of secular instruction might be subjects of instruction in primary schools. The department immediately took advantage of this amending Act, and provided for the teaching of mathematics, higher English, and science in the fifth and sixth classes.