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The School‐Level Environment Questionnaire (SLEQ) is a new instrument measuring teachers' perceptions of the following eight psychosocial dimensions of the environment of primary or secondary schools: Affiliation, Student Supportiveness, Professional Interest, Achievement Orientation, Formalisation, Centralisation, Innovativeness and Resource Adequacy. Noteworthy features of the SLEQ are its consistence with the literature, coverage of Moos's three general categories for conceptualising all human environments, salience to practising teachers, specific relevance to schools, minimal overlap with classroom environment instruments, and economy. Administration of the SLEQ to two samples of 83 and 34 teachers, respectively, revealed that each seven‐item scale possessed satisfactory internal consistency and discriminant validity. Preliminary use of the SLEQ provided evidence of its usefulness in research into the effects of school‐level environment on classroom‐level environment and on teachers' pedagogical attitudes.

A report is provided of an evaluation of two “Senior Colleges” designed to offer viable alternatives to traditional secondary education for students above the age of compulsory schooling. The evaluation involved several researchers working independently and information collected using a variety of both quantitative and qualitative methods (including student and staff interviews and questionnaire surveys, nominal group procedures with staff and administration of instruments assessing student perceptions of classroom‐level and teacher perceptions of school‐level environment). The most striking finding emerging from almost every aspect of the evaluation was the success of the Colleges in creating a positive ethos for both students and staff. Some of the areas of concern which were identified included a relatively low level of student cohesiveness, confusion about the purpose of the Colleges, the distracting behaviour of some younger students and staff's conditions of service.

In the second part of this report the action of nitrogen peroxide on flour is discussed at some length in an account of a series of researches that have been carried out by DR. MONIER‐WILLIAMS. His conclusions may be briefly stated as follows. The maximum bleaching effect is obtained when each kilogram of flour is treated with from 30 to 100 cubic centimetres of nitrogen peroxide. The bleaching effect becomes more pronounced after keeping for several days. The amount of nitrous acid or nitrites that are present in bleached flour corresponds to about 30 per cent. of the total nitrogen absorbed, the proportion of nitrites present remaining nearly constant after the lapse of several days in the more slightly bleached samples. After the lapse of a short time it is still possible to extract about 60 per cent. of the nitrogen absorbed by the flour by means of cold water, but after several days the nitrogen that can be extracted by this means decreases. This may perhaps be attributed to the “absorption” of nitrous acid by the glutenin and gliadin. In highly bleached flour (300 cubic centimetres of nitrogen peroxide per kilogram of flour) a considerable increase in the amounts of soluble proteins and soluble carbohydrates takes place. In highly bleached flour, after some time, about 6 or 7 per cent. of the nitrogen introduced as nitrogen by the nitrogen peroxide is absorbed by the oil, which acquires the characteristics of an oxidised oil. No evidence is forthcoming as to the formation of diazo compounds nor the production of free nitrogen. Bleaching was found to exercise an inhibitory action on the salivary digestion of flour.

Chocolate and cocoa are made from the “beans” or seeds of several small trees, natives of tropical America, of which Theobroma cacao (L.) is by far the most important. Cocoa beans were highly esteemed by the aborigines, especially the Aztecs of Mexico and Peru, who prepared from them beverages and foods. They were brought to the notice of Europeans by Cortez and other explorers, but were not extensively imported into Europe until the seventeenth century, about the time tea and coffee were introduced from the East. At present the world's supply comes chiefly from Venezuela, Guiana, Ecuador, Brazil, Trinidad, Cuba, Mexico, and other regions bordering on the Gulf of Mexico, being gathered in these regions from trees both wild and cultivated; and also to some extent from Java, Ceylon, Africa, and other parts of the Old World, where the tree has been successfully cultivated.

The British Food Journal is in no way concerned with politics, and as it would appear that the propositions put forward by Mr. CHAMBERLAIN are commonly regarded as constituting matter for political controversy instead of being looked upon as subjects for serious investigation and discussion entirely outside the field of politics, it would be an undesirable course and one likely to be misunderstood and, no doubt, misrepresented, were we to refer to the great question which is now before the country without plainly indicating at the outset that we have no intention of supporting or opposing any political party or any section of politicians. We believe Mr. CHAMBERLAIN'S suggestion that the subjects which he has brought forward should be discussed on a higher plane than on the muddy plane of party politics was a reasonable and proper suggestion which all men of sense who are not blinded by political bias should applaud and endeavour to adopt. We do not mean to say that problems of so complicated a character are capable of being accurately solved, in the present state of knowledge, by scientific methods other than actual experiment. They certainly cannot be solved by abstract discussions of a pseudo‐scientific character. The factors which enter into the problems of political economy are so numerous, so complex, and so little understood, that to endeavour to argue even on the basis of what are alleged by political economists to be well‐ascertained facts in the so‐called “dismal science” is to lay oneself open to the charge of theorising from insufficient data. HERBERT SPENCER has lucidly demonstrated the universality of this scientific crime. On comparatively simple subjects, in regard to which a man has no special knowledge, he will, if possessed of the quality known as common sense, generally decline to deliver oracular opinions; but, let a subject be sufficiently complex and let the data relating to it be few, obscure, and uncertain, then decisive opinions will be delivered by all and sundry,—and the more profound the ignorance the more decisive will be the expression of opinion.

At the present time when all kinds of adulterants are being employed by many bakers in the manufacture of bread, and the food rations, and bread rations in particular, are considerably reduced, it is of the utmost importance that the public should take what steps they can to obtain a bread which contains a relatively high percentage of assimilable proteins. Many of the “ war breads ” which have been manufactured of late cannot be characterised as satisfactory and desirable products especially in view of the cases of acute indigestion which have been directly attributed to the use of such bread. One of the “ Die Hard ” fallacies, which continues to be promulgated by some members of the Scientific and Medical professions with obstinate regularity, is that the protein content of a food is an absolute indication as to its nutritive value. Nothing could be much more misleading or erroneous. It is quite possible for a food to contain a high percentage of substances described as proteins and yet to possess very little or no nutritive value for the average person inasmuch as many of the substances described as proteins may be entirely indigestible or nearly so. The nutritive value of any food to any given person is largely dependent upon the idiosyncrasies of the person, the amount of available protein present in the food, and certain other factors.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationship between secondary school teachers' perception of principal leadership style (specifically transformational and transactional leadership styles) and school climate.

The Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire was used to assess the transformational and transactional leadership styles of principals. Climate data were obtained using the School Level Environment Questionnaire. The theoretical framework of this study is derived from Theory of Leadership Style. The authors surveyed 141 teachers from 17 urban secondary schools in northern Malaysia.

It was found that transformational leadership has an effect on four aspects of school climate (affiliation, innovation, professional interest, and resource adequacy) whereas transactional leadership only effects participatory decision making.

Whereas school climate impacts student achievement and is an important element of effective schools, it was not the focus of this study. It is recommended to use a larger sample using teachers and administrators from multiple school districts to see if similar findings would occur.

Educational leaders must realize the impact of principal leadership behaviour on teachers and students in their journey to improvement and create a school climate that is conducive for students to achieve at expected levels.

There is currently increased pressure at national, state, and local levels for all students to perform at superior standards. Both teachers and school principals are under increasing demands to improve their school's climate.

This study offers school boards and superintendents some insight into how the principal's leadership style may enhance the school climate.

With the view of obtaining reliable first‐hand information as to the nature and efficacy of the food laws in Great Britain, France, and Germany, Mr. ROBERT ALLEN, the Secretary of the Pure Food Commission of Kentucky, has recently visited London, Paris, and Berlin. He has now published a report, containing a number of facts and conclusions of very considerable interest and importance, which, we presume, will be laid before the great Congress of Food Experts to be held on the occasion of the forthcoming exposition at St. Louis. Mr. ALLEN severely criticises the British system, and calls particular attention to the evils attending our feeble legislation, and still more feeble administrative methods. The criticisms are severe, but they are just. Great Britain, says Mr. ALLEN, is par excellence the dumping‐ground for adulterated, sophisticated, and impoverished foods of all kinds. France, Germany, and America, he observes, have added a superstructure to their Tariff walls in the shape of standards of purity for imported food‐products, while through Great Britain's open door are thrust the greater part of the bad goods which would be now rejected in the three countries above referred to. Whatever views may be held as to the imposition of Tariffs no sane person will deny the importance of instituting some kind of effective control over the quality of imported food products, and, while it may be admitted that an attempt—all too restricted in its nature—has been made in the Food Act of 1899 to deal with the matter, it certainly cannot be said that any really effective official control of the kind indicated is at present in existence in the British Isles. We agree with Mr. ALLEN'S statement that our food laws are inadequate and that, such as they are, those laws are poorly enforced, or not enforced at all. It is also true that there are no “standards” or “limits” in regard to the composition and quality of food products “except loose and low standards for butter and milk,” and we are compelled to admit that with the exception of the British Analytical Control there exists no organisation—either official or voluntary —which can be said to concern itself in a comprehensive and effective manner with the all‐important subject of the nature and quality of the food supply of the people. In the United States, and in some of those European countries which are entitled to call themselves civilised, the pure food question has been studied carefully and seriously in recent years—with the result that legislation and administrative machinery of far superior types to ours are rapidly being introduced. With us adulteration, sophistication, and the supply of inferior goods are still commonly regarded as matters to be treated in a sort of joking spirit, even by persons whose education and position are such as to make their adoption of so foolish an attitude most astonishing to those who have given even but slight attention to the subject. Lethargy, carelessness, and a species of feeble frivolity appear to be growing among us to such an extent as to threaten to become dangerous in a national sense. We should be thankful for outspoken criticism—if only for the bracing effect it ought to produce.

There have been a number of studies of church‐state relations and the place of religion in education in nineteenth and early twentieth century Victoria. However, these studies, including J. S. Gregory’s authoritative Church and State, offer no significant discussion of Rationalism. This is somewhat surprising, since Gregory’s influential earlier discussion of church, state and education up to 1872 had included a few paragraphs on Rationalism. It is even more surprising that it was overlooked in Gregory’s later and larger study, which extends to the early twentieth century, since Rationalism was by then a much more powerful force. A consequence of this omission, together with the general shift of scholarly interest away from the church‐state issue, is that little is known about Rationalism and its approach to church‐state relations in the period when, arguably, it was a force to be reckoned with. This article helps correct this omission, first, by examining the development of Rationalism in Victoria up to the early 1900s, and second, by exploring its successful campaign against the Protestant attempt to install a divinity degree at the University of Melbourne.