It is exceedingly doubtful whether the public schools for girls which have sprung up all over the country with such rapidity of late years have been formed upon a sound footing as regards payment of fees and salaries.[4] Broadly speaking, the fees are too low to pay salaries which will allow the recipients to live in any but a very careful manner. If unhampered by claims of relations, teachers may secure the necessaries, and, to some extent, the comforts of life; but they can hardly allow themselves such recreation, change of scene, and general liberality of living, in the wide sense of the term, as will enable them to recuperate their stock of health, energy, and intellectual brightness, so as to retain freshness in teaching and keep abreast of the times. The right level of teaching cannot be maintained upon any less terms; and so long as girls’ secondary schools are founded upon a purely commercial basis, the standard which we have a right to demand from those who have charge of the education given therein will seldom, I fear, be reached. The organisation of secondary schools is, however, too large a matter to be discussed here. The whole question, including the claims of secondary schools upon the State for support, is rapidly becoming an affair for national consideration. Legislation cannot be long deferred, and the preliminary stage of discussion and debate has already begun. [4] The average fee in the Girls’ Public Day School Company’s Schools is £12 12_s._ 0_d._ _per annum_, the same as that charged by the City of London School for Boys, a richly-endowed school, which has no dividends to pay, and is backed by the richest Corporation in the world. =Elementary Schools.=--The conditions under which employment can be obtained in the elementary schools may be found in the official publications of the Education Department, and the general character of the work is also too well known to need description here.[5] More women than men are employed in the elementary schools, the number of certificated masters being 18,611, of mistresses 27,746. I append tables of salaries drawn up in 1893, by the National Union of Teachers, classified according to the denominations to which the schools belong. It should be noted that the tables refer to certificated mistresses only. [5] Regulations as to certificates and examinations are undergoing considerable change, and it is expedient therefore for candidates to consult the latest publications. AVERAGE SALARIES OF CERTIFICATED MISTRESSES.