Jan. vy, 1889] 



NATURE 



285 



' )mestic servant. "Master" means the employer of any 

 >prentice as hereinbefore defined. 



"School Authority" means the School Board exercising 

 iiisdiction in the district in which the place of employment is 

 uated, or any elected body which may take over the powers o 

 -ach School Board ; and in places where there is no School . 

 Hoard, it means the County or Borough Council under the Local 

 I Government Act, 1888, or the Municipal Corporations Acts. 

 I " Technical Education" is an education in the scientific and 



f artistic principles which govern the ordinary operations in any 

 industr}'. 



" Technical School " mains a place for tec'ini;.il education, 

 whether established and maintained — 



[a) By the School :A.uthority, and open to all apprentices ; 

 (A) By voluntary effort, and open to the apprentices of more 

 than one master ; 



(r) Or by a master for his own apprentices. 

 " Inspector" means the Inspector of Factories in whose district 

 the place of employment is situated, or if there be no such 

 inspector, then the School Board Visitor for such district. 



(3) The Education Department shall forthwith and from time 

 to lime prescribe regulations in conformity with the rules for the 

 time being of the Science and Art Department, in the subjects in 

 respect of which Parliamentary grants are made by the Science 

 and Art Department, for the formation and instruction of classes 

 of elementary school children who have passed the Fourth 



I Standard, and thereupon the School Authority may form such 

 I science and art classes, and provide such instruction accord- 

 1 ingly, and earn such grants, and may assign such grants to the 



teachers of such classes, or may otherwise provide for their 



remuneration. 



(4) Every master shall provide each of his apprentices with 

 technical education at a technical school. 



(5) Every apprentice shall devote at least two hours a day, 

 five days in the week, during working hours, to study at a 

 technical school. 



(6) The School Authority shall annually in January prescribe 

 the time for such study, having regard to the usual working 

 hours in places of employment in their district, and shall publish 

 a table of the times so prescribed. A printed copy of such 

 table shall be conspicuously exhibited by the master in every 

 such place of employment in such positions for such times and 

 in such type and form as the School Authority shall prescribe. 



(7) The School Authority shall have power to establish and 

 maintain such technical schools as may be necessary to accom- 

 modate and provide technical education for all apprentices in 

 their district whose masters do not otherwise efficiently provide 

 for the technical education of their apprentices. The master 

 of each apprentice shall pay the prescribed fees for his tuition at 

 such schools. 



(8) The technical schools established and maintained by the 

 School Authority may provide technical education for persons 

 other than apprentices. 



(9) The course of studies at such schools, and fees payable 

 for the same, shall be prescribed from time to time by the 

 School Authority, subject to the sanction of the Education 

 Department. 



(10) The inspector shall inform himself as to the sufficiency 

 of the technical education given to apprentices in his district, 

 and report thereon to the School Auth )rity and the Education 

 Department at such times and in such manner as they shall 

 respectively prescribe. 



The du'ies, powers, and penalties relating to the office of 

 inspector, specified in the Factories and Workshops Act, 1878, 

 >\\a.\\ be applicable to any inspector under this Act, and to any 

 place of employment within the provisions hereof. 



The inspectors shall be paid by the School Authority such 

 remuneration for their services under this Act as the Education 

 Department shall approve. 



(11) All offences under this Act shall be prosecuted, and all 

 fines under this Act shall be recovered on summary conviction 

 before a Court of Summary Jurisdiction in manner provided by 

 the Summary Jurisdiction Acts. 



The provisions of the Factories and Workshops Act, 1878, 

 and the Acts amending the same as to legal proceedings and 

 appeals, shall be deemed to be incorporated in, and made 

 applicable to, this Ac:. 



The punishment for any offence under this Act shall be a fine 

 not exceeding ;^5. 



( 1 2) The expenses of carrying this Act into execution shall be 



defrayed by the School Authority, who shall have power to pro- 

 vide for such expenditure by moneys raised, precepts issued, 

 or rates levied under their powers. Separate statements of 

 such expenditure shall be furnish -d annually to the Education 

 Department. 



ZOOLOGICAL NOTES FROM TORRES 

 STRAITS. 



7\ 



r^AUDAL Respiration in Periophthalnius. — At the Birming 

 ham meeting of the British Association, in 1886, Dr. S. J. 

 Hickson painted out that the species of Periophthalmus which 

 he had observed in the Celebes always rested with its tail im- 

 mersed in water, although the body was out of the same. I do 

 not know whether any experiments have been made on this fish, 

 but I have made a few which tend to show that this remarkable 

 animal largely respires by means of its caudal fin. The experi- 

 ments were made on specimens obtained from a Mangrove 

 swamp/on the Island of Mabuiag (Jervis Islands), anc^may be 

 summarized as follows : — A specimen totally submerged in the 

 sea was perfectly well and lively after forty-two hours. A 

 second specimen lived a day and a half in a vessel containing 

 just sufficient water to keep the tail-fin submerged, but not 

 enough for respiration by means of the gills. (It is possible that 

 the fish would have lived longer, if the sea-water had been 

 continually renewed. ) Fish with the caudal fin coated over with 

 gold size, when put in a vessel of sea-water, only lived, on an 

 average, from twelve to eighteen hours, althou^jh they could 

 utilize their gills for respiration ; others kept under similar cir- 

 cumstances, but not anointed with gold size, lived a day or two, 

 apparently in perfect healt'i . On submitting the caudal fins to 

 the microscope, the circulation of the blood appeared to be 

 exceptionally vigorous. I hope to be able to further test these 

 observations on a future occasion. ^ 



The Employment of the Sucker- fish {Eckenels) in Turtle fish- 

 ing. — The only two references to the employment of the sucker- 

 fish in turtle-fishing which I have by me are those in Dr. 

 Giinther's "Introduction to the Study of Fishes," and the 

 "Narrative of the Voyage of H.M.S. Rattlesnake" by J. 

 Macgillivray. The latter (vol. ii. p. 2i). states that he was in- 

 formed that the nati ves of Morulug ( Prince of Wales Island), Torres 

 Straits, catch a small species of turtle in the following manner : — 

 "A live sucker-fish {Echeneis remora), having previously been 

 secured by a line passed round the tail, is thrown into the water 

 in certain places known to be suitable for the purpose ; the fish 

 while swimming about makes fast by its sucker to any turtle of 

 this small kind which it may chance to encounter, and both are 

 hauled in together ! " Dr. GUnther U.c. p. 461) throws doubt 

 upon the habitual utilization of the Echmeis for this purpose. 

 In the Straits there are two periods for turtle fishing, the one 

 during October and November, which is the pairing season, and 

 when turtle are easily speared owing to their floating on the sur- 

 face of the water ; the other, during the remaining months of the 

 year when the turtle frequent the deeper water and the channels 

 between the reefs. It is then that the sucker-fish — or, as the 

 natives term it, " Gapu," — is utilized. I have, at present, no 

 means of determining the species of Echeneis common in the 

 Straits. I believe it to be E. naucrata, as the Species here attains 

 a greater length than E. remora. When going out turtle-fishing, 

 a Gapu is caught, and the more experienced natives have 

 no great difficulty in procuring one when it is required. A 

 hole is made at the base of the caudal fin by means of a turtle- 

 bone, and the end of a very long piece of string is inserted in the 

 hole and made fast. The end of a second, quite short, piece of 

 string, is passed through the mouth and out by the gills. By 

 means of these two strings the fish is retained, while slung over the 

 sides of the canoe, in the water. When a turtle is sighted deep 

 down in the water, the front piece of string is withdrawn, plenty 

 of slack being allowed for the hind string. The Gapu on per- 

 ceiving the turtle immediately swims towards it, aad attaches 

 itself to the reptile's carapace. A man, with a long rope 

 attached to an upper arm, dives into the water and is guided to 

 the turtle by the line fastened to the Gapu's tail. On reaching 

 the turtle, the man gets on its back, and passes his arms behind 

 and below the fore- flappers, and his legs in front and below the 

 hind-flappers. The man is then rapidly drawn up to the surface 

 of the water bearing the turtle with him. On the arrival of the 



