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NATURE 



\June 21, i 



assisted by rates levied by local authorities or by Imperial grants, 

 in addition to those made now by the Department. All acknow- 

 ledge the importance of this higher training. If the head is not 

 educated, the hands are apt to get into mischief. Hence, as these 

 University Colleges can never be self-supporting, it is greatly to 

 be hoped that they will receive that national aid which their 

 importance to the State demands. 



But we have a second Bill before the House of Commons — 

 one introduced by myself on behalf of the National Association 

 for the Promotion of Technical Education. I naturally prefer 

 the provisions of my own Bill to those of the Government. 

 They are much simpler, less clogged and hampered by con- 

 ditions, and confer the same benefits as the Government Bill 

 proposes to confer, with one exception only, viz. aid from the 

 rates to voluntary schools, for to this many of my friends are 

 strongly opposed ; but, so far as I am myself concerned, I am 

 free to admit that I should not object to see the difficulty settled 

 by permissive powers being given to the School Boards to aid 

 voluntary schools in their district, just as it is proposed that local 

 authorities shall have power to do the same where no School 

 Boards exist ; for, as I have pointed out, the ratepayers have it 

 in their power to refuse such payments by electing members who 

 will oppose such an application of the rates. 



Now, to turn to the more immediate question relating to your 

 Union, you may, I think, be gratified with the results of your 

 fifty-one years' work. You can look back upon half a century of 

 admirable endeavour. You have now 260 institutions in union, 

 containing upwards of 500,000 members and 14,000 technical 

 students. You have spent half a million of money in buildings 

 contributed by voluntary subscriptions, with the exception of 

 1 per cent, derived from S.K. grants for building. All the mem- 

 bers of your committees are unpaid, and many of them have 

 been at work for you all their lives. Your claims for national 

 aid are therefore high, and such aid is much needed, for, though 

 the progress you have made is great, you have not nearly accom- 

 plished all that has to be done. We want continuation evening 

 schools established on a new and generous basis. We want a 

 new and more elastic evening school code. We want to eman- 

 cipate from the rigid lines and requirements of payment on 

 individual results. We want an attendance and merit grant for 

 evening continuation schools — say \2s. per head for attendance 

 of sixty nights to insure good and continuous teaching. Above 

 all, we wish that existing institutions should be rendered effective. 

 The 260 institutes are in existence, but need help. 



When we look abroad we see that both Governments and 

 municipalities vie with each other in aiding technical schools. 

 They are proud to do so, for they know their value. "Do you 

 suppose," said an intelligent German to me, " that we, weighted 

 as we are with heavy taxation for our military and civil services, 

 would willingly further tax ourselves for the purposes of technical 

 schools unless we were convinced that the outlay^will repay us 

 over and over again ? " This is German opinion, and it is the 

 opinion which we need to inculcate in the minds of our own 

 people, for then we shall get what we want. 



Nor need we be ashamed of the beginnings which we have 

 already made ; many of our existing institutions will bear favour- 

 able comparison with Continental models. Take Huddersfield 

 for example ; the school there exactly meets the requirements of 

 the district, and it has already exerted a very marked and bene- 

 ficial influence on the trades of the district, especially as 

 concerns dyeing and design. This school cost ^20,000, all 

 raised by voluntary effort, but though doing excellent work it is 

 heavily in debt, and its friends have difficulty in raising funds to 

 keep it going — not for lack of pupils, for the school is largely 

 attended, but for the reason that such higher schools cannot be 

 self-supporting, and the greater the number of pupils the greater 

 the cost. Surely, if our people understood their true interests as 

 well as our neighbours and competitors do, they would not rest 

 until such an institution is placed in a position to do all it can 

 to raise the condition of their industries by supplanting the too 

 common and worn-out rule of thumb by scientific knowledge 

 always new and always productive. Then again at Yeadon, a 

 small place, you have a school which cost .£7000 to build, and 

 in which 350 students are being instructed. But here, too, 

 funds are urgently needed to carry on the work. Surely there 

 ought not to be many who grudge spending a penny in the 

 pound on such objects. In Castleford itself, your Mechanics' 

 Institute has done during its forty years of life, and is now 

 doing, good work. The building is, however, too small for the 

 requirements of the day ; your numbers have increased from 80 

 to 210, and the necessary appliances for teaching science and 



technology are deficient. Let us hope that when the Technical 

 Bill becomes an Act, Castleford will be one of the first to take 

 advantage of its provisions. 



But you may ask, What good will come to our leading industries 

 here — coal and glass — by your technical education ? How shall 

 the employers and employed benefit therefrom ? In the first 

 place, then, there is no industry in which the value of even a 

 little scientific training is so important for both masters and men 

 as in that of coal-getting. Such a training may, for instance, 

 be, and indeed has often been, the means of saving hundreds 

 of valuable lives. One ignorant man may place in jeopardy 

 or even sacrifice by a single careless act the lives of his 

 comrades, an act which no one acquainted with the properties 

 of explosive gases would dare to commit. In a thousand other 

 ways scientific knowledge — which after all is only organized 

 common-sense — will help all concerned in this great industry. 

 So again in glass-making, how great is the aid given by scientific 

 and artistic knowledge. What a step was the introduction of 

 the Siemens regenerative tank furnace, and how much more 

 remains to be achieved. Then your bottle trade might, by the 

 application of artistic knowledge, be made the foundation of a 

 higher and more tasteful industry which might successfully com- 

 pete with the wares of Bohemia and Venice. Why not ? Are 

 not our workmen both mentally and physically superior to the 

 foreigner ? I believe them to be so. They only need teaching, 

 and that we have hitherto withheld from them. 



It has been well said that whilst we have confined our atten- 

 tion to improving our machines, the Germans have devoted 

 themselves to educating their men. Let us lose no time in 

 following their lead. " What we fear," said one of the masters 

 to me, "is not either free trade or protection. What we fear is 

 that some day you English will wake up to the necessity of 

 educating your manufacturing population as we do, and then 

 with your racial and physical advantages it will become difficult, 

 if not impossible, for us to compete with you." Let us, then, 

 take to heart the old adage that victory comes to the strong, 

 but remember that it is not to the bodily strong, but only 

 to the strong mentally and morally that the victory comes. 

 Let us see that in this struggle for existence our people are 

 healthy and vigorous in all these three essentials, and act upon 

 the true and eloquent words of Huxley, " You may develop the 

 intellectual side of a people as far as you like, and you may 

 confer upon them all the skill that training and instruction can 

 give, but if there is not underneath all that outside form and 

 superficial polish the firm fibre of healthy manhood and earnest 

 desire to do well, your labour is absolutely in vain." 



THE INTERNATIONAL GEOLOGICAL 

 CONGRESS. 



A DMIRABLE arrangements have been made for the London 

 ■*"*■ meeting of the International Geological Congress, from 

 September 17 to 22 next. The following details are taken 

 from a printed letter signed by the General Secretaries, Mr. J. 

 W. Hulke and Mr. W. Topley. The meetings will be held in 

 the rooms of the University of London, Burlington Gardens, 

 where accommodation for the Council, Committees, Exhibition, 

 &c, has been granted by the Senate of the University. There 

 is a refreshment-room in the building, and there are several 

 restaurants and hotels in the immediate neighbourhood. Arrange- 

 ments will be made at one of these restaurants for a room to be 

 set apart for the social meetings of members of the Congress. 

 The opening meeting of the Congress will take place on Monday 

 evening, September 17, at 8 p.m., when the Council will be 

 appointed, and the general order of business for the session 

 will be determined. The ordinary meetings of the Congress will 

 be held on the mornings of Tuesday, the 18th, and succeeding days, 

 beginning at 10 a.m. In the afternoons there will be visits to 

 Museums, or to places of interest in the neighbourhood of 

 London. Arrangements for the evenings will be made at a later 

 date. The ordinary business of the Congress will include the 

 discussion of questions not considered at Berlin, or adjourned 

 thence for fuller discussion at the London meeting. Amongst 

 these are : the geological map of Europe ; the classification of 

 the Cambrian and Silurian rocks, and of the Tertiary strata ; and 

 some points of nomenclature, &c, referred to the Congress by 

 the International Commission. Miscellaneous business will also 

 be considered. In addition to these questions, the Organizing 

 Committee proposes to devote a special sitting to a discussion on 

 the Crystalline Schists. An Exhibition will be held during 



