sen by themselves. There is also a
board of supervisors, composed of three men or women, elected by the
parents of the parish. Childless people are not allowed to vote. This
board of supervisors does not appear to have any definite function
except to advise and find fault. The school board elects the teachers,
determines the courses of study and methods of discipline, and submits
recommendations and estimates for appropriations annually to the
municipal council. In both city and country what is called "voluntary
instruction" is provided outside of the legal school hours, which may
be taken advantage of by people who are willing to pay for additional
attention from the school teachers, but it is neither free nor
compulsory.

The compulsory studies in the primary schools are the Bible, the
catechism of the Lutheran creed, the Norwegian language, the usual
elementary branches, with history (including a treatise on the
constitution and the government of Norway), botany, physiology
(including the fundamental principles of hygiene and the effects of
the use of intoxicating liquors), singing, drawing, wood-carving, the
use of the lathe and other tools, manual training, gymnastics, and
rifle shooting.

The national law requires that schoolhouses shall be so located as to
be within a distance of two miles of the residences of ninety per cent
of the children of school age. The poor are provided with text-books
upon application, and in some places the municipal council provides
every child a warm dinner at noon. It can be paid for if the parents
prefer, but the better classes look upon this provision with
prejudice, as they do upon all charities. Nevertheless, it is an
excellent idea to be sure that the children of the poor get at least
one warm meal every day. In the city of Christiania, 711,302 meals
are served annually in the primary schools. The average attendance is
22,750, so that only about 24 per cent of the children take advantage
of the free dinner. Only 18,341 of these meals are paid for, and those
are taken on stormy days by children of well-to-do parents.

The Norway school teachers must be graduates of normal schools, of
which there are twelve in the kingdom; they must pass examinations and
serve a probation of three months before they are definitely engaged,
but when they have once received an appointment, they are settled for
life and sure of a pension at the end of the long term of faithful
service. The same r