The Chairman,
smilingly intimating that he would hear what the Deputation had to
say, though he added, amidst the ill-suppressed merriment of his
_confreres_, he supposed it was the old sing-song protest, possibly
on this occasion because they had recently directed that the boys
attending the schools of the Board should come in "Eton" suits,
the cost of which naturally fell upon the rates, or some captious
objection of that kind, which it really was a waste of breath to
discuss. However, whatever it was, he added, he was willing to hear
it.
The Spokesman of the Deputation, a Duke in reduced circumstances,
who ascribed his ruin to the heavy rates he had been called upon to
pay through the extravagance of the Board, and who declined to give
his name, said that though they had not thought the Eton suits a
necessity, still it was not against them that they had to protest.
It was the addition of Astronomy involving the erection (with fitting
first-class instruments) of 341 observatories in the London district
alone, Chinese, taught by 500 native Professors imported from Pekin
for the purpose, horse-riding, yachting, and the church organ (these
last two being compulsory), together with the use of the tricycle,
type-writer, and phonograph, all of which instruments were provided
for every single pupil at the expense of the ratepayers, to the
curriculum of all those pupils who were fitted for the third standard.
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