98 



NATURE 



[Dec. 5, 1889 



any part of its district, or of any other managers of a 



school or institution within its district /or the time being 

 in receipt of aid from the Department of Science and Art" 

 make provision for technical education in its district. 

 The narrowest interpretation of this clause would confine 

 the whole benefit of the Act to schools already receiving 

 grants from South Kensington, and this view was under- 

 stood by some members of the Conference — we hope 

 wrongly — to be endorsed by General Donnelly. 



We need hardly point out that such an interpretation 

 would seriously restrict and cripple the operation of the 

 Act. If there is one conclusion clearer than another 

 from the Manchester Conference, it is that there is a 

 general wish to use the rate for what we may venture to 

 term its legitimate purpose — the assistance of those 

 technical subjects which are not at present included in 

 the Science and Art Directory. The worst thing that 

 could be done would be to fritter it away in the form of 

 doles to existing science and art classes ; and yet, if only 

 grant-earning schools can profit by the Act, this is what 

 will inevitably tend to take place. Such an institution as 

 the Leicesi r Technical School, which has classes in 

 bootmaking, lace-making, &c., but no science and art 

 classes, could get no help. The same would be true 

 of such a school as the P'insbury Technical College. 



We are glad to believe that so narrowing a mean- 

 ing cannot fairly be given to the wording of the 

 section. It is true that the words we have italicised 

 make it necessary that the first institution to make a 

 request to the local authority to put the Act in force 

 must be already in connection with South Kensington, if 

 it is not a School Board. But this condition only applies 

 to the initial proceedings. When the request is made 

 and granted, the local authority may make, " to such an 

 extent as may be reasonably sufficient having regard to 

 the requirements of the district, but subject to the condi- 

 tions and restrictions contained in this section, provi- 

 sion in aid of the technical and manual instruction for the 

 time being supplied " (not only in the school which 

 makes the request, but) " in schools or institutions within 

 its district." 



That is, it may aid all higher schools already giving 

 instruction which falls within the four corners of the Act, 

 and this instruction includes very much more than the list 

 of subjects on which grants can at present be earned. 



And this leads us to the further question. What is 

 meant by technical instruction in the Act? Some 

 people, even at the Conference, understood it to mean 

 merely the subjects in the Science and Art Directory, and 

 any others which may be sanctioned by the Department 

 on the representation of a local authority. This interpre- 

 tation, again, would severely cripple the usefulness of the 

 Act. At a time when the pubhc is beginning to realize 

 the mechanical nature of much of the teaching subsidized 

 by South Kensington, and the want of elasticity and 

 local adaptability which inevitably results from over- 

 centralization, it would be nothing less than a disaster to 

 tie down all science and art, and perhaps even techno- 

 logical teaching, to the rigid syllabus of a Government 

 Department. Chemistry qua chemistry would not be a 

 " technical " subject, unless, forsooth, it were taught ac- 

 cording to a certain sylla.bus, and followed by a certain 

 examination. No really " technical " subject (except the 



four or five which are included in the Directory) would be- 

 " technical" under the Act until the local authorities in 

 each district (not, be it noted, the managers of schools) 

 had made a representation on the subject to the Science 

 and Art Department, and a minute had been laid before 

 Parliament. 



But here, again, we are strongly of opinion that no such 

 meaning can fairly be attached to the definition. "Tech- 

 nical instruction," so runs Clause 8, "shall mean '\x\- 

 strxxciion'm the pri7iciples rf science and art applicable to 

 industries, aud in the application of special branches of 

 science and art to specif c industries and employments. It 

 shall not include teaching the practice of any trade or 

 industry or employment." There is the definition. What 

 follows is not a restriction, but an amplification, intended 

 to provide a mode of clearing up doubtful cases. Some 

 one might hereafter declare that some subject, as, for 

 example, mathematics or landscape-painting, though in- 

 cluded in the Directory, was not contemplated by the 

 Act, as not being " instruction in the principles of science 

 and art applicable to industries." The section therefore 

 expressly declares that the definition shall include all 

 such subjects ; and if there be any other subject outside the 

 Directory about which doubt is entertained, that doubt 

 may be set at rest by a representation from a local 

 authority. The Science and Art Department is umpire 

 in doubtful cases, but no appeal to the Department is 

 necessary with reference to subjects — say the principles of 

 weaving, dyeing, plumbing, &c., — which fall unmistakably 

 within the definition. That, at least, is our view, and we 

 believe the only rational one. It seems to us as clearly 

 the meaning of the letter of the Act, as it was certainly 

 the intention of its promoters. 



The Science and Art Department, however, will have 

 the power to define the mode of teaching of technical 

 subjects for the purpose of earning Imperial, though not 

 local, grants. The Department might, as was suggested 

 at Manchester by Principal Garnett, take over the whole 

 system of grants and examinations now controlled by the 

 City and Guilds Institute. But we venture to hope— and 

 Principal Garnett himself would, we believe, agree in 

 this — that the authorities at South Kensington will think 

 very carefully before embarking on a new system of pay- 

 ments on results, in the case of subjects which admit far 

 less of such a test than most of those included in the 

 Science and Art Directory. 



They would do well to rely far more on efficient inspec- 

 tion than on individual examinations, and if the inspec- 

 tion were made a reality, instead of being, as now, too 

 often a farce, they might, perhaps, ultimately base their 

 grants for technical instruction on the amount of local 

 contributions, in some such way as that provided for in 

 the Welsh Intermediate Education Act. The Manchester 

 Conference was strongly opposed to any increase of 

 centralization, and the greatest possible freedom ought to 

 be allowed to localities from the outset to develop their 

 own system to suit their own needs. 



If the Conference was decided on this point, it was, we 

 think, equally decided that, under a broad interpretation 

 of the Act, the powers conferred on local authorities are 

 really very extensive. It is little short of a scandal that 

 an Act for the improvement of English industry should 

 itself offer such an exhibition of bad workmanship. But: 



