EDUCATION IN QUEENSLAND. 731 



£22,645,769; of skins and hides, £1,597,343; of metals, ores. cVc. 

 (exclusive of specie), £13,379,488; of wood, &c., £1,044,043. When 

 we consider the very large amount of raw material which Australia 

 exports, and the large amount of manufactured material which she 

 imports, material, be it remembered, manufactured largely out of the 

 raw produce which she lias exported, it is hard to see why Australia 

 should not in time be able not only to supply many of her own require- 

 ments but to become a large exporter of manufactured material as 

 well as of raw material. But to enable those results to be achieved, 

 the intelligence of the industrial captains must be highly trained and 

 their directive faculties developed ; the operatives must be highly 

 skilled, and the machinery made as perfect as man can make it. It 

 is in this direction that the powerful forces of technical education will 

 be called into action ; for what technical education has done for 

 Germany and America in raising them to the front rank of industrial 

 and conunercial nations it should do for the Australian States, if it is 

 properly organised and skilfully directed and applied. Patriotic 

 Queenslanders regard their State as the queen State of the Common- 

 M-ealth, and they are not slow to proclaim her manifold glories or to 

 discourse eloquently upon her many and varied resources. Certainly 

 Nature has been very lavish in her gifts ; but of all the States Queens- 

 land is possibly the one which may be benefited most by a properly 

 developed system of technical education, and yhe must not only make 

 her opportunities but seize those which she has. Her mineral wealth 

 seems to be almost limitless, but proper methods have yet to be 

 discovered of treating many of her refractory ores ; her agricultural 

 resources are gi-eat, but ways of combating destructive pests have 

 to be evolved; drought itself has to be resisted. The vista of possi- 

 bilities in the way of scientific research is boundless; and in the 

 making of that research the technical institutes must act as accessories 

 to the University, when it comes. In the commercial, industrial, and 

 agricultural departments technical education has an important part to 

 play. 



It is only since July, 1905, that the Department has been closely 

 associated with the administration of technical education in Queens- 

 land. Previous to 1902 technical -colleges, with the exception of the 

 Brisbane college, were cai-ried on in connection with schools of arts 

 under the control of local committees. The Brisbane Technical College 

 has been in existence as a distinct institution since 1882, and during 

 the whole period of its existence it has been under the directorship of 

 Mr. D. R. McConnel, M.A., who may be regarded as the father of 

 technical education in Queensland, and one of the earliest pioneers of 

 technical education in the whole of Australia. The State subsidised 

 the technical colleges to the extent of £1 for each £1 paid in fees or 

 subsci-ibed -for technical college purposes. In 1902 a Board of 

 Technical Education was created; the board held office until 1905, 

 when this branch of education was placed under the control of the 

 Department, and a special officer was appointed to supervise the work. 

 Endowment is now paid upon a differential scale, the distribution being 

 based on the general and practical utility of the subjects taught ; the 

 subsidy ranges from 10s. to £3 for e^ry £1 of fees collected. There 

 were 16 colleges in operation during 1907, and the total number of 



