444 TECHNICAL EDUCATION xvil 



were explaining to' a boy a matter of everyday 

 life. 



So far as science teaching and technical educa- 

 tion are concerned, the most important of all 

 things is to provide the machinery for training 

 proper teachers. The Department of Science and 

 Art has been at that work for years and years, and 

 though unable under present conditions to do so 

 much as could be wished, it has, I believe, already 

 begun to leaven the lump to a very considerable 

 extent. If technical education is to be carried out 

 on the scale at present contemplated, this particu- 

 lar necessity must be specially and most seriously 

 provided for. And there is. another difficulty, 

 namely, that when you have got your science or 

 technical teacher it may not be easy to keep him. 

 You have educated a man a clever fellow very 

 likely on the understanding that he is to be a 

 teacher. But the business of teaching is not a 

 very lucrative and not a very attractive one, and 

 an able man who has had a good training is under 

 extreme temptations to carry his knowledge and 

 his skill to a better market, in which case you 

 have had all your trouble for nothing. It has 

 often occurred to me that probably nothing would 

 be of more service in this matter than the creation 

 of a number of not very large bursaries or exhi- 

 bitions, to be gained by persons nominated by the 

 authorities of the various science colleges and 

 schools of the country persons such as they. 



