8 Transactions of the Royal Canadian Institute 



Sorbonne, for attendance on the courses given there is not limited as 

 at the other schools I have mentioned. 



In England it will shortly be as in France that the boy of exceptional 

 ability will be able to pursue his studies as far as he will however indigent 

 the circumstances of his parents may be. At present there is nothing to 

 prevent him completing his course in the secondary school, for plenty 

 of scholarships to that end are offered by the county councils. There 

 are also more than enough scholarships in classics for entrance to the 

 universities. In science and moderns, however, such scholarships are 

 lacking. The funds to redress the balance here have been promised, so 

 I am cold, and it will not be long until arrangements have been made 

 which will provide for carrying the boy of outstanding ability right 

 through the secondary school and the university, or higher technical 

 institution of university grade, and training him for research if his 

 tastes incline that way. 



The experience of the Naval Dockyard Schools in England furnishes 

 an interesting commentary on the amount of brain waste there must be 

 in classes of the community where better educational opportunities 

 are not available. The schools here referred to are conducted for the 

 benefit of shipwright apprentices who work in the Dockyards. The 

 apprentices who distinguish themselves in their studies are transferred 

 to the Engineering College at Keyham for a year, and if their showing 

 justifies it, they are then sent on to the Royal Naval College at Green- 

 wich for the three years* course at that Institution. 



The majority of the present Constructive Staff at the Admiralty 

 Dockyards were formerly students at the Dockyard Schools. These 

 same schools have furnished a succession of distinguished Directors of 

 Naval Construction at the Admiralty. Among these one might mention 

 Sir William White, the designer of the pre-dreadnoughts, and Sir Phillip 

 Watts, designer of the first dreadnought; others are Sir E. Reed and 

 Sir N. Barnaby. Sir J. Marshall, who started as an apprentice in a 

 Dockyard School, became, later on, Director of the Dockyard. Sir J. 

 Biles, Professor of Naval Architecture at Glasgow, had the same start 

 and this was the case also with Mr. S. J. P. Thearle, formerly Chief 

 Surveyor of Lloyds'. Others could be named who have occupied or 

 who are at present occupying commanding positions with some of the 

 largest private shipbuilding concerns in Great Britain. 



What a pity it would have been had such precious material been lost 

 to Great Britain. What a pity it is that so much material of like char- 

 acter has been lost and is being lost to Great Britain and the Empire. 

 What a pity it is, too, that in Canada no adequate effort has been made 

 to salvage equally good material. 



