Education.

The public elementary schools—171 in number, with an average of 8520 scholars on the rolls—are under the control of a board. The income of teachers is derived from fixed salaries regulated by their classification and supplemented by school fees and allowances. Provision is made for the encouragement of higher education by a system of exhibitions tenable at the best private schools, and by annual examinations for the degree of Associate of Arts, under the direction of the Council of Education. Two scholarships of £200 a-year each, tenable for four years at a British University, are awarded annually by the council to Associates of Arts who pass a prescribed examination.

Education in the public schools is unsectarian, and compulsory at ages ranging from 7 to 14 years.

Free certificates are granted to children whose parents are too poor to pay school fees; and there are, in Hobart Town, free or ragged schools wholly or partially maintained at the expense of the State.