Ma^ II, 191 1] 



NATURE 



1^1 



have of comparing things that are unHke. It is quite true 

 that in higher education and in the application of science 

 to industry Germany has marlced features which we do not 

 possess, but evening schools and evening classes connected 

 with universities or technical colleges are things which are 

 little known in Germany as we know them." 



Lord Haldane seems himself to have erred in comparing 

 things which are unlike, and the conclusion derived from 

 the comparison is, therefore, misleading. Our evening-class 

 system is admirable, but as the report of the Guild's 

 Technical Education Committee points out, it is to a large 

 extent of the nature of continuation school work, and has 

 no relation to technical education rightly so-called. About 

 three-quarters of a million students attend evening schools 

 and classes, but the average number of hours of instruction 

 received by each student throughout the session is only 

 about fifty, and 20 per cent, of the students fail to 

 complete the, small minimum number of attendances 

 required by the Board of Education as qualification for a 

 grant toward the instruction. Moreover, nearly 150,000 

 students in evening schools and classes are under fifteen 

 years of age. It is obvious that, however excellent this 

 evening-school work may be considered from the point of 

 view of further education, it can be of little assistance to 

 national industries and manufactures which require highly 

 specialised knowledge and research for their development. 



The latest report of the Board of Education provides the 

 best reply to the suggestion that we have reason to be 

 satisfied with what is being done for technical education in 

 England. It appears from this report that in the forty-two 

 technical institutions recognised by the Board (and that 

 number includes practically all the technical schools and 

 colleges in which organised courses of relatively advanced 

 instruction are given in the day-time, as well as applied 

 sciences departments of such Universities as Birmingham, 

 Liverpool, Manchester, and Leeds), about 2000 students 

 took full courses of instruction in 1909-10. Of these 

 students only about 400 were engaged in work of the third 

 year, and 125 in still more advanced work. What it 

 comes to, therefore, is that the total number of day 

 -tudents in English polytechnics, technical schools, and 

 olleges is less than in a single German technical university 

 uch as that of Charlottenburg or Munich. 



But putting comparisons aside, there is surely nothing to 

 be satisfied with in the fact that only 125 students in the 



! technical institutions connected with the Board of Education 

 are doing work beyond that of the third year, considering 



j that the entrance age is sixteen, and in some cases is 

 reduced to fifteen years. No wonder the Board of Educa- 

 tion remarks in its report : — " It is to be deplored that 

 there are several schools in which the well-qualified staffs 

 and the excellent equipment practically stand idle in the 

 day-time through lack of students." Details of our position 

 as regards technical education, and suggestions for its 

 improvement, will be found in the report of the Technical 

 Education Committee, printed as an appendix to the report 

 of the Guild. The subjoined extracts from the general 

 report and this appendix are of particular interest. 



Govcrniiioit On^aiiLiation. 



In th(? ;i[)|)' ndix m tin lourih report several opinions were 

 quoted touching on the need of a better reorganisation of 

 our executive Government. It was pointed out by our 

 president that at present our " executive government is 

 about as disorganised and chaotic an institution as any- 

 body can conceive." " There was too little science in it 

 at the present time. There was hardly a department which 

 did not require the aid of science if it was to be effective." 

 " I believe that things will not be right until we have 

 scientific corps under a permanent committee, just as the 

 I )efence Committee is under the Prime Minister to-day. I 

 tliink you should not have a body which consists of officials 

 of the ordinary kind, but one which should consist of 



tthe mosi scientific men, who would go there because 

 they are honoured and paid, and put on the footing on 

 ' liich they deserve to be placed, and are recognised as a 

 ndy of men who will be at the elbow of the department, 

 and who c.in organise the scientific work of the State. If 

 wo get that, as I hope we shall, I trust that the example 

 of the Government in adopting science will be followed l)v 



the municipalities, as 1 believe it is going to be followed 

 more and more by our manufacturers." 



" The creation of the Committee of Imperial Defence 

 carried scientific principles into the sphere of government, 

 and was the first step towards getting military and naval 

 motions into order. We now have a general staff which 

 is a body, not to exercise command, but to give advice in a 

 thoroughly practical fashion and in a fashion which can 

 be enforced. The speculation may be indulged in whether 

 one of the great reforms of government to which we are 

 coming — because we have been driven to it — will not be 

 the creation in an organised fashion of just such a general 

 staff for departments of government, and not merely for the 

 army." 



Apart from the question of advisory committees already 

 referred to, there are other parts of our administrative 

 s\-stem, or want of system, which have to be considered. 



The oldest Government departments were set going in the 

 pre-scientific age. W'ar, diplomacy, and finance were then 

 the chief things considered. The State did not concern 

 itself with commerce and industry, or the health or educa- 

 tion of the people, nor had science or art any place in the 

 administration. It was in connection with the Navy that 

 the first scientific services ^ere established, the Royal 

 Observatory for preparing an ephemeris ' and a survey of 

 the seas to render the navigation of warships more secure. 



In most Continental nations, including our own, the 

 scientific education of army and navy officers was insisted 

 upon long before that of civilians ; hence the former were 

 necessarily employed in various departments of the State, 

 when the necessity of facing scientific problems arose. 

 Thus our land survey was carried out by the Board of 

 Ordnance. 



It was while this state of things existed that the Board 

 of Trade and the Department of Science and Art were 

 established, as a result of the Prince Consort's warnings 

 and pleadings. It was the Board of Ordnance which 

 supplied its well-instructed officers of engineers to these and 

 other public departments as the need for scientific treatment 

 arose, and because fully educated civilians were not avail- 

 able either in the departments or outside them. It is in 

 consequence of these various additions to the State 

 machinery at different times to meet different needs that 

 the " chaotic " condition to which our president has 

 referred has arisen. The new problem raised by the neces- 

 sity of scientific inquiries to aid the service of the State has 

 not yet been faced. 



To take an instance of our administrative system, or 

 want of system, we may refer to our national surveys. 

 Our four national systems of surveys of the surface of the 

 land, of which that surface consists and of what lies under- 

 neath it, of the air and of the seas, are at present controlled 

 bv four different departments of the State. 



The two land surveys, one using the maps prepared by 

 the other, are controlled, one by the Board of .Agriculture, 

 the other by the Board of Education. The Meteorological 

 Office, which deals with the air, is under th. IK asury, 

 while the hydrographic survey is controllri! liy the 

 .\dmiralty. 



There is good reason for the last named being under the 

 Admiralty, because to the .Admiralty belong the ships which 

 are necessarily used in the work ; but there is no reason 

 why the other three surveys should not be administered by 

 one department. 



The question arises whether the surveys dealing with the 

 land surface and what lies beneath it should not be brought 

 together, and under the Board of Education, and whether 

 the air survey (the Meteorological Office) should not be 

 transferred from the Treasury to the same department, 

 which already administers the Solar Physics Observatory, 

 in which allied work is carried on. The recent transfer to 

 South Kensington of the Meteorological Office is another 

 argument in favour of this proposal. 



To take another instance. The primary. secO' * try, and 

 technical education of the country is controlled by the 

 Board of Education, while the Treasury is supreme in 

 matters relating to the universities. The situation is as if 



1 Even then, however, according to Sir George .Airy, the latitiule t>f the 

 court had more to do with the foundation of the Observ.itory ili.m il"- im- 

 portance of determining the longitude at sea A Royal mi^llr^s h.nl m :i-.n:is 

 for wishing the new departure. 



NO. 



I 



2167, VOL. 86] 



