NOTES 285 



industries of the country, while, from the outsider's point of view, the articles on 

 the biology and geology of various localities will be of most importance. It is to 

 be hoped that the enterprise will meet with its deserved success and help to 

 stimulate greater interest in science in the Dominion. 



Last quarter Dr. Charles Mercier reviewed in its broad outlines the report of 

 Sir J. J. Thomson's Committee on the position of Science in our Educational 

 System, and there will probably be very little disagreement with the praise he 

 bestowed upon it. Nevertheless, when we come to consider the finer details, it 

 must be admitted that some are open to serious criticism. Thus, the last section 

 of the report deals with "the supply of trained scientific workers for industrial and 

 other purposes." It begins by deploring the leakage — some 60 per cent, of the 

 total entrants — which occurs in secondary schools before the general course is 

 finished, and states that : 



" The want of appreciation by parents of the benefits of secondary education 

 prevents a full utilisation of the resources in the way of scholarships which are 

 even now available. . . . Much as we may regret it, there is no doubt that appeals 

 for secondary education for its own sake appear far-fetched to the majority of 

 parents, and leave them untouched." ! 



To correct this view it is suggested that " steps should be taken to put before 

 parents in as clear and as simple a way as possible the careers open to those who 

 complete a course of secondary education . . . and the assistance diligent students 

 might expect from schlarships." It is not impossible that there may be some 

 difficulty in doing this. Diligent students may indeed obtain assistance from 

 scholarships ; they will certainly have to undertake a strenuous course, and 

 undergo the strain of many examinations ; the middle-class parent will certainly 

 have to bear a considerable financial burden, but what is not certain is the 

 ultimate reward. One short paragraph in the report throws a little light on this 

 darkness : 



" If industry wants men of scientific ability who have taken a College course 

 extending over four or five years, it must be prepared to pay for them. To offer 

 salaries of ,£100 to ^150 a year with very indefinite prospects of future advance- 

 ment is useless The salaries and prospects of advancement must be such as to 

 induce able young men to continue their education up to the age of 22 or 23 and 

 to persuade poor parents to bear the additional burden involved." 



Further information will be found in a letter written by Dr. E. N. da C. Andrade 

 to Nature (June 29, 1916) on " Science, Scholarships, and the State," which presents 

 an aspect of the matter most inadequately treated in this report. Finally, in 

 another sphere, there is the statement made by Mr. T. Gautrey, at a meeting of 



1 This notion is not limited to the middle classes. In a speech on the Fisher 

 Bill the Right Hon. Sir F. G. Banbury expressed himself thus : " His experience 

 in the City was that the man who took Firsts at Oxford generally came out last, 

 and that the man who could hardly write his name generally came out first. The 

 explanation was that education could not put into a man that instinct of self- 

 preservation and common sense which was the foundation of all success in 

 business. How could education assist a farm labourer to spread manure on a 

 field? The best labourer he had known was wholly illiterate. If the waste of the 

 war was to be replaced it would be necessary for the young to start as early as 

 possible in doing a day's work instead of wasting time on useless book learning." 

 (Extracted from Prof. Pope's Presidential Address to the Chemical Society, 

 March 1918.) A finer double-barrelled testimonial for the utter uselessness of a 

 public school classical education would be hard to find. 



19 



