twenty public rooms, and one hundred and ten private rooms, sufficient to accommodate two hundred and twenty students. The building also affords boarding accommodations for an equal number. There are, in addition, ample accommodations in private families, in the vicinity of the college, for several hundred more.

OLIVET COLLEGE.

It will be seen, by reference to the report of the President of this College, that its prosperity is still continued. During the past year the College has made manifest progress. The Board of Trustees are now engaged in erecting a new College edifice, to be used for recitation rooms, and dormitories. It is to be fifty-four feet in width and one hundred and twelve feet in length, four stories high. Its cost will not be less than $30,000; $15,000 of which were pledged on the last commencement day. Several large donations have been made, during the year, to the endowment fund of the College. Others are confidently expected, the present year.

The State Normal School still continues as prosperous as at any previous time. The teachers have been so long connected with the School, and understand so fully what was needed to to be done, that the School did not feel the loss of its former Principal, as it otherwise would have done. Under its new Principal, we may hope to see its power for good, still more increased, and its general prosperity greatly enlarged.

UNION SCHOOLS.

The important part which our Union Schools are acting in the great educational work of the State, demands special notice. Whatever of distrust and opposition which were at first felt to the introduction of the system of graded schools, have almost entirely disappeared. The opposition now felt to the plan of Union Schools is occasioned by local considerations. Some towns, separated into two nearly equal parts by a stream of water, or other natural division, each part being jealous of its own peculiar interests, and ever watchful lest one should gain some advantage of the other, finding it very difficult, if not quite impossible, to agree upon a site for a school edifice, or some other point necessary to union, cling to their own school, thus maintaining, in some instances, as many as three graded schools, each having its principal and corps of teachers.

One Union School, with its large and vigorous high school department, under the supervision of a competent Principal, or Superintendent, would be vastly more efficient. Most of of our larger towns, and many of the smaller ones, are now enjoying the advantages of a well conducted Union School. The real good these schools are accomplishing can hardly be over estimated. The catalogues which come to the Department of Public Instruction from these schools, make an exhibit of work done that is most gratifying. Many of these schools report more than a thousand pupils in constant attendance. Their courses of study are as extended and thorough as those prescribed by our best academies, offering to all who desire it, a course of instruction which will qualify them to engage successfully in any branch of business, or prepare them to enter the University or any of the Colleges of the State.

By the advantages furnished by these schools, scattered as they are through the State, hundreds, and I may say thousands, are induced to pursue a course of study complete in itself, and more or less extended, and many do not stop until they have

completed the curriculum of the College or University. The Superintendent of the public schools of one of our cities says, in his Annual Report: "It would be strange indeed, if, after the elapse of more than a decade of years, since the establishment of the Union Schools of the city, there should not be some questions concerning these schools, so fully determined by public opinion, as to be no longer fit subjects for argument or discussion. Among such settled questions, may be named the following: That a graded Union School shall be maintained in this city, by methods in accordance with State and municipal law; that this school shall provide for the primary education of all children of suitable age within our limits; that above the primary school there shall be higher departments, furnishing the means for acquiring the elements of a more liberal education; that these higher departments shall also supply all needed facilities to such pupils as desire to prepare for our State University, which is an integral part of the public school system of this State-a part indeed, of our public schools; that individual choices shall so far yield to the general choice, and the public good, as to admit of a thorough classification of pupils, and an entire uniformity among pupils of the same class, in text-books, and in subjects and methods of study; and that such rules shall be enacted concerning attendance, punctuality and discipline, as will enable the schools to do their fullest and best work in the community. These are no longer open questions. They have long been settled in accordance with a school system, which has the sanction of time and authority. I find myself in this system and wholly bound by it, in common with other citizens of that great State which has adopted it, and every member of that intelligent community, which has so long carried out its provisions, consequently wholly absolved from all responsibility for it, and all necessity for putting forth argument in its defence."

The questions here stated as settled, should be settled in every school in the State, whether it be a union school, or

simply a district school. It will be noticed, also, that another question is settled, which is this: "That this school shall provide for the primary education of all children of suitable age, within our limits." This is done by raising money, for school purposes, by general tax. No fear of rate bill for the poor, making them to feel compelled to take their children from school, even if in the midst of the successful prosecution of their studies. May the day soon come when the rate-bil! shall be numbered among the things that were. Another settled question in this school is, that higher courses of study are arranged for those wishing to pursue them. The names of thirteen persons are given in the catalogue of this school who graduated from the High School, the last year. The number promoted from the Grammar School to the High School, is forty-four. Other catalogues make an exhibit equally favorable, showing that the schools are most successfully conducted. By referring to the courses of study to be pursued in these schools, it will be seen that it is no light thing to do, to thoroughly complete the course.

Another thing is true of these Union Schools: the teachers remain in the same school for a series of years. It is true that in some schools there are frequent changes. But with many of the schools the principals have been connected for a number of years. The success of the school demands this permanent connection, and the longer the better. It gives the teacher time to perfect his plans, to test his methods, and thus to determine by actual trial whether his theories are mere theories, or whether they correspond with fact. The fact that the teacher knows all his pupils thoroughly, knows their capacity for study, knows their power of endurance, and the fact that the pupils know the teacher, are advantages as great in securing a successful school as the fact that the physician knows his patient and the patient the physician is an aid in the art of healing, and tends to ensure the recovery of the patient.