No. 425.
Mr. Bingham to Mr. Evarts.
Tokei, December 29, 1879. (Received Jan. 27, 1880.)
Sir: Herewith I beg leave to transmit for your information the fifth annual report of His Imperial Japanese Majesty’s minister of education for the tenth year of Meiji (1877).
I take pleasure in saying that I have been furnished with this interesting report through the courtesy of his excellency Mr. Terashima, now the minister of education, and formerly the minister for foreign affairs.
[Page 677]You will observe that the empire is divided into fu and ken, the former being cities, the latter being political departments, and that the tables annexed to the report show the expenditures in each per annum for school purposes, and also the salary paid to teachers in each, and also the value of public school property in each.
The total value of the public school property is estimated at 12,389,138 yen, of which the permanent school fund is 7,521,459 yen; the value of school-houses 3,164,114 yen; of school grounds, 265,261 yen; the revenue from school land, 149,844 yen; the value of school apparatus and books, 1,868,458 yen. It also appears that the interest from the school fund for the year amounted to 827,173 yen.
It is stated that the voluntary contributions made in money by the people during the year to the school fund amounted to 809,745 yen; in lands, to the amount of 115,506 tsubos or more than 96 acres; also 310 buildings; 26,507 complete sets of books, &c; and that the total number of persons who thus contributed during the year to the public schools was 499,767.
It is well said by the minister that “the table of contributions (from 1873 to 1877, inclusive, pp. 21, 22) shows that the local interest in education has been so great that fortunes have not been spared” in promoting the good cause.
The table shows that during the five years the money contributions amounted to 8,504,000 yen; and the land contributions to 853,000 tsubos, about 700 acres.
During the year 1877 the government contributed to the elementary schools 562,500 yen, and to the public normal schools 28,875 yen.
It appears (p. 6) that the entire population in 1877 of the seven school districts in the Empire was 34,245,323, and that the number of children who received instruction during the year was 2,094,298, while the whole school population was 5,251,807.
The new code of education just issued and forwarded in my No. 1039 will in future prevent the exclusion from the public schools of any of these children.
This report speaks well for this government and its people, and is another evidence that both the novernment and the people of Japan esteem education to be essential to the general welfare.
I have, &c.,