of $85. What shall be done with the extra hundred dollars? Who shall hold it? Is the clerk liable for the mistake?

A. The money will remain in the hands of the treasurer, and, if not wanted for repairs, may, by vote of the district, be applied to any other lawful purpose. The clerk is not liable to any penalty for the mistake.

LETTING TO LOWEST BIDDER.

Q. Has the district a right to let the job of furnishing the wood to the lowest bidder, at the annual meeting?

A. No such power is given to a district, in section 430. They vote such a tax as may be deemed sufficient to secure a school house, and to keep in repair and furnish the same with the necessary fuel and appendages. The board is expected to carry out the vote or votes of the district, under sections 434 and 435. The district can make bargains or contracts only through its board. If the district instruct the board to let the job of furnishing the wood to the lowest bidder, they may feel at liberty to do so.

Q. Can the county board let out the job of furnishing stationery for the county superintendent?

A. The county board has nothing to do with the matter, except to allow the sum, within the limits of the law, certified to be necessary by the superintendent. The case is different as to other county offices.

THE TEACHER.

Q. The teacher was requested to keep the ashes in a barrel in the entry. The board and all others knew of it. The school house burned down, and it is thought the fire originated from the barrel. Is the teacher responsible?

A. No. He should have known better, to be sure, and the board also; but upon them rests the responsibility.

Q. May a teacher forbid pupils, speaking a foreign language, to use it at noon and recess?

A. No, that would be arbitrary. The pupils must have reasonable and enjoyable recess. They may be encouraged to use English, as much as may be, but not forbidden to use the language with which they are more familiar. It cannot be considered wrong, and is not forbidden by law.

Q. I contracted to teach four months, at $1.25 a day. The board now claims that I must make up Thanksgiving, Christmas and New

Year's, because I did not teach on those days. Is this just? I have taught 80 days, including those three?

A. Unless your contract otherwise provided, the 80 days, including the legal holidays, make the four months, whether you were paid by the day or the month.

Q. If a teacher is hired at so much "a month," and nothing further is said, is a calendar month to be understood?

A. No. The law interprets the teacher's month (code, section 459).

CERTIFICATES.

Q. When a new county is formed from another, are the certificates held by the teachers in the same valid any longer?

A. They must be considered good for the whole territory for which they were given, until they expire by their own limitation, but subject to the provisions of section 451.

Q. A certificate having been annulled, on proof of lack of knowledge of arithmetic, may the decision be recalled, on request of all the district but one man, in order that the teacher may finish the school?

A. That would not be proper. It might be possible for the teacher, by diligent study, to become able to get a limited certificate in a short time, and then resume and finish the school. Of that the examiner would judge.

CONSTITUTIONS AND MENTAL ARITHMETIC.

Q. Are teachers to be examined hereafter in the "Constitutions" and in mental arithmetic; I see the law is changed?

A. Yes: the revision of the statutes omitted "Constitutions " from section 450, probably by inadvertence, but the legislature has restored them. Teachers are to be examined in "arithmetic." The examiner will still test them in mental arithmetic, if he understands his duty. The one word covers the whole ground. The examiner will judge for himself whether it is necessary to have two sets of questions. The law intends no relaxation in severity of examination.

WRITING LETTERS IN SCHOOL TIME.

Q. May the teacher suppress private letter-writing in school time, even if parents approve of it?

A. Yes; that there may be order, pupils should spend school time in school work. If one may write letters, another may read novels, a third embroider, and so on. Of course letter writing, at proper times, as an exercise in composition, directed by the teacher, is very commendable.

POWER OF TEACHER.

Q. Can a teacher require a pupil to study a given branch, if one named in the law, if the parent is opposed to it?

A. The supreme court of this State, as has been repeatedly announced, has decided that he can not; that if a parent directs that a child shall not study a certain branch, the teacher can use no compulsion in the matter.

Q. Can a teacher use compulsion, in any case, in regard to branches not required by law?

A. Such branches are to be introduced into a common school, if at all, by the action of the board. It would be quite proper that the teacher examine as to the fitness of any pupils to take up such additional branches. He would perhaps have done this already, and recommended to the board the formation of classes in such branch or branches. It would not be his province in any case to compel any pupil to join such classes. Compulsion is always to be a thing of last resort, and in this matter especially, is not to be used by the teacher.

TEXT-BOOK ADOPTIONS.

Q. Are adoptions made under the former laws still binding after the three years expire, under the provisions of section 440, and until the State Superintendent consents to a change?

A. Such adoptions are binding, as provided in said section. This is the proper construction to be put upon the last period of the section. Consent to make a change would ordinarily be granted without any difficulty, it may be presumed.

INTRUDING PUPIL.

Q. If a pupil, not having any right to attend the school, persists in coming, can such pupil be excluded from the school-house by force? A. This would be lawful. If circumstances are such that the teacher does not care to resort to force, then recourse may be had to the remedy provided in section 4572 of the revised statutes.

ABOLITION OF A FREE HIGH SCHOOL.

Q. Can a town which has established a free high school, vote to abolish it?

A. No provision is made in the law for such action. Failure to vote the means to carry it on would have much the same effect.

3- VOL. IX.-3

EDITORIAL.

AN examination of the Revised Statutes near the close of the session of the Legislature, revealed the fact that no provision had been retained by the revisers to fill vacancies which might occur in the office of county superintendents. Under the old statutes, the State Superintendent was authorized to appoint persons to such vacancies. A bill restoring the former law passed both houses under sus. pension of the rules, and was signed by the Governor in the last three days of the session.

THE fact should be remembered by our county superintendents at their exam. inations this spring, that over three thousand teachers in excess of the number of our public schools, were employed in the State last year. This means the introduction of a large element of poorly qualified teachers, those who reduce the average wages of competent teachers to the lowest rates, and drive such teachers from the service. It is an unpleasant duty, but one which must be sternly performed by these officers, to reject all applicants for certificates, who, in ability and character, are ill fitted to teach in our schools. Those who fail may grumble, and their unreasonable friends may threaten, but the welfare of the schools committed to the trust of the superintendents, demands imperatively this protection from their hands.

THE law relating to the examination of teachers, was amended by the Legis lature this winter. Hereafter, all applicants for teachers' certificates, must be examined in the constitutions of the United States and of Wisconsin. This is simply restoring the provision on this subject, which was omitted in the Revised Statutes.

Early in January, a circular was sent to the county and city superintendents, inquiring whether, in their opinion, the teachers should be required to pass an examination in the constitutions. Answers in the affirmative have been received from nearly all these superintendents. On the point of making this study op. tional in the public schools, these officers are divided; the majority favoring a change in the statutes so that the study may be taught, like United States History, only in those schools which desire to pursue it. The law on this subject was not amended. But in practice, the constitutions are not usually studied in our schools, except where classes have been prepared to take up the study.

On the 3d of this month, copies of the Annual Report of the State Superintendent were delivered to the members of the Legislature. The practice of waiting for the Annual Reports of other State officers to be issued, for more correct returns from school officers to be received, and for the accounts of the condition of the State, Literary, and Charitable Institutions to be published, before the Superintendent can obtain materials with which to complete his own report,

has prevailed for ten years, and cannot, under the present system, be avoided. No one would be satisfied with imperfect tables of statistics. One institution would complain if the report of another was included, and its own not presented, and yet that one is not forthcoming until weeks after it is needed. The defect here experienced, may be partially remedied by the Superintendent issuing, on the meeting of the Legislature each winter, his annual statement, to be followed by the documents and the tables as soon as they are received and prepared.

THE State Board of Charities, in their Annual Report this year, referring to the action of the Trustees of the Institution for the Deaf and Dumb, in the retention of the present superintendent, make use of the following strong and pertinent words:

"If such men as have stood at the head of this school, and as are these trustees, are to be sacrificed to a wild, unreasonable public clamor, who, as well fitted for their work, will be willing to take their places? We appeal most earnestly to the people of the State of Wisconsin, to pause and consider these things. The loudest complaints against the characters of public men, not infrequently come from persons of the vilest habits of life. If an election or appointment to office is to be the signal for the foulest aspirations, then dishonest ambition will come to wear the crown of public honors, while patriotism and purity will shrink from exposure to the dangers of public life.

We find that such of our citizens as become familiar with the condition of our public institutions, are the least disposed to find fault with their management, and are the most reliable in the support of their managers. We have found this to be especially true in the present instance. We have gratefully re ceived many expressions of confidence and approval from our prominent and influential citizens. The demands of a mere clamor are always unreasonable and unsafe. The loss of public wisdom is a public disaster, as nothing can be so easily done and so well managed as when the press and people remain calm and impartial."

A COMPULSORY educational bill passed the Legislature at the last session, under the title "To secure to children the benefits of an elementary education." It was ably championed in the Assembly by Hon. John Brindley, of Boscobel, who introduced the measure, and it received the unanimous support of that body. In the Senate, it was supported most earnestly by Hon. Wm. T. Price, the president pro tempore of that house, and passed by the vote of 20 to 7. The bill is similar to the one which received the favorable consideration of the Assembly a year ago, and was lost in the Senate.

It is unquestionable that the more intelligent tax-payers demand that the children shall be educated in the schools which they are compelled to support. There is justice in their demand. Again, since the training of our schools tends to diminish crime and destitution, a much less number of our youth must not be allowed to reach maturity in ignorance of the common school studies, and without an experience of the restraints practiced in our public schools. The purely vol