which the people were sunk, while the registration of land, which is necessary under the revenue settlement of the North-western Provinces, appeared to him to offer the stimulus of a direct interest for the acquisition of so much knowledge, at least of reading and writing, of the simple rules of arithmetic, and of land measurement, as would enable each man to look after his own rights.
93. He therefore organized a system of encouragement of indigenous schools, by means of a constant inspection by zillah and pergunnah visitors, under the superintendence of a visitor-general; while, at the head-quarters of each tahsildar, a school was established for the purpose of teaching “reading and writing the vernacular languages, both Urdu and Hindi accounts, and the mensuration of land.” A school-house is provided by Government, and the masters of the Tahsili schools receive a small salary, and are further entitled to the tuition fees paid by the pupils, of whom none are educated gratuitously, except “on recommendations given by village schoolmasters who may be on the visitor’s list.” A certain sum is annually allotted to each zillah for the reward of deserving teachers and scholars; and the attention of the visitor-general was expressly directed to the preparation of elementary school-books in the vernacular languages, which are sold through the agency of the zillah and the pergunnah visitors. We shall be prepared to sanction the gradual extension of some such system as this to the other districts of the Agra Presidency, and we have already referred to it as the model by which the efforts of other Presidencies for the same object should be guided.
94. In the Presidency of Bombay the character of the education conveyed in the Anglo-vernacular colleges is almost, if not quite, equal to that in Bengal; and the Elphinstone institution is an instance of a college conducted in the main upon the principle of grant in aid, which we desire to see more extensively carried out. Considerable attention has also been paid in Bombay to education, through the medium of the vernacular languages. It appears that 216 vernacular schools are under the management of the Board of Education, and that the number of pupils attending them is more than 12,000. There are
