798 PROCEEDINGS OF SECTION J. 



Reverting to the more general problem of technical education as 

 propounded, it will be seen that the function of the technical college 

 in this State ought to be that of imparting to all its students a certain 

 amount of manual skill and familiarity with materials; but to the 

 student specially desirous of entering the mechanical industries it 

 should be able to impart a more extended knowledge of general 

 engineering matters, such as that of lubrication and the reasons under- 

 lying the wear and tear of machinery, a more exact knowledge of 

 drawings and their meaning, so as to enable him to judge of the 

 accessibility of the parts of a machine, and the provision for the 

 taking up of wear, packing of glands, cleaning out of oil wells, against 

 rusting, oil throwing, &c. The college should be able also to impart to 

 him a knowledge of how to erect machinery, including the laying out 

 of the work according to drawings, the building of foundations in 

 concrete, brick, or timber, the erection of steam and exhaust piping 

 so as to avoid water pockets and leaky joints, the setting of boilers, 

 the choice of steam valves, water gauges, pumps, feed water heaters, 

 and economisers. In fact, the college should primai'ily be prepared 

 to teach its engineering students to intelligently purchase, erect, and 

 use machinery and apparatus made by someone else. Only after 

 providing for such teaching should the college apply its energies to 

 satisfying the wants of the student who wishes to enter the field of 

 manufacturing the machinery. 



The field of technical education is so wide that in attempting to 

 lay before you certain views on the subject I have confined myself to 

 one branch of it, but even in such a partial exposition of the subject a 

 few remarks on the influence of the primary school will not be out of 

 place. 



Most teachers at technical colleges have felt that the work of the 

 primary school is of a character more particularly suited to the 

 requirements of those engaged in literary or mercantile pursuits than 

 industrial. This tendency, which exists in most countries, is particu- 

 larly noticeable in the teaching of arithmetic in the higher classes. 

 Two to three per cent, of the text-book work is devoted to calculations, 

 covering mensuration and compound proportion, while 30 to 40 per 

 cent, is devoted to banking and stock exchange work, which involves 

 the inculcation of a special set of conceptions, covering such matters 

 as bills of exchange, discounting of bills, and brokers' commission on 

 sale of shares. In order to make the teaching of arithmetic more 

 generally suited to the wants of the whole community, it is desirable 

 that it be shorn of much of its mercantile tendencies, that any special 

 reference to banking or stock exchange matters be minimised. It is 

 also desirable that the practice of aiming at an absolute accuracy be 

 modified in favour of a percentage accuracy, the percentage being 

 dependent on the accuracy of the data and the accuracy really required 

 in the result. At the same time pupils should be taught to calculate 

 in rough approximations as a check on the production of absurdities, 

 it being quite a common thing at present to meet lads who are proud 

 of doing a sum with an accuracy of figures to six places of decimals. 



It would be of great advantage to the future technical student if 

 he were during his childhood to acquire the power of making and 

 recording obseiTations of his own, both in words and in rough 



