3IO 



NATURE 



\yuly 28, 1887 



for any other matters which, in the opinion of the Department 

 of Science and Art, are necessary for carrying out the 

 agreement. 



5. (i) Every school provided under this Act shall be con- 

 ducted in accordance with the conditions specified in the minutes 

 of the Department of Science and Art in force for the time being, 

 and required to be fulfilled by such a school in order to obtain a 

 grant from that Department. 



(2) Those conditions shall, amongst other things, provide that 

 a grant shall not be made by the Department of Science and Art 

 in respect of a scholar admitted to the school unless or until he 

 has obtained such a certificate from the Education Department 

 as is herein-before mentioned. 



(3) A minute of the Department of Science and Art not in 

 force at the passing of this Act shall not be deemed to be in 

 force for the purposes of this Act until it has lain for not less 

 than one month on the table of both Houses of Parliament. 



6. (i) Every local authority providing a school under this 

 Act shall maintain and keep efficient the school so provided. 



(2) For the purposes of providing and maintaining any such 

 school a local authority shall have the same powers as a school 

 board has for providing sufficient school accommodation for its 

 district, but for the purposes of this Act the provisions of the 

 Elementary Education Acts with respect to the exercise of those 

 powers shall have effect as if the Department of Science and 

 Art were substituted therein for the Education Department. 



(3) Where a local authority has provided or maintains any 

 such school, it may discontinue the school or change the site 

 thereof, if it satisfies the Department of Science and Art that 

 the school to be discontinued is unnecessary or that the change 

 of site is expedient. 



7. (i) The managers of any technical school in the district 

 of a local authority may make an arrangement with the local 

 authority for transferring their school to that authority, and the 

 local authority may assent to any such arrangement. 



(2) The provisions of section twenty- three of the Elementary 

 Education Act, 1870, with respect to arrangements for the 

 transfers of schools in pursuance of that section, shall apply in 

 the case of arrangements for the transfers of schools in pursu- 

 ance of this section, with this modification, that for the purposes 

 of this section references to the school board shall be construed 

 as references to the local authority, and references to the 

 Education Department as references to the Department of 

 Science and Art. 



8. In this Act— 



The expression " technical instruction " means instruction in 

 the branches of science and art with respect to which grants are 

 for the time being made by the Department of Science and Art, 

 or in any other subject which may for the time being be sanc- 

 tioned by that Department; and the expression "technical 

 school" means a school or department of a school which is 

 giving technical instruction to the satisfaction of the Department 

 of Science and Art. 



The expression " local authority" means a school board and 

 the council of a borough for which there is no school board. 

 The expression " local rate" means — 



{a) in a district for which there is a school board, the school 

 fund ; 



{b) in a borough for which there is not a school board, the 

 borough fund or borough rate. 



The expression "the Education Department" means the 

 Lords of the Committee of Her Majesty's Privy Council on 

 Education. 



The expression "prescribed " means prescribed by the Depart- 

 ment of Science and Art. 



9. In thfe application of this Act to Ireland the expression 

 "borough" means a borough subject to the Act of the session 

 of the third and fourth years of the reign of Her present 

 Majesty, chapter one hundred and eight, intituled " An Act for 

 the regulation of municipal corporations in Ireland," and the 

 Acts amending the same. 



Schedule. 

 Standard VI. 



Reading. — To read a passage from one of Shakspeare's his- 

 torical plays, or from some other standard author, or from a 

 history of England. 



Writing. — A short theme or letter on an easy subject, 

 spelling, handwriting, and composition to be considered. An 



exercise in dictation may, at the discretion of the inspector, be 

 substituted for composition. 



Arithmetic. — Fractions, vulgar and decimal, simple propor- 

 tion, and simple interest. 



II. 

 We reprint from \}[).&. Times of July 21 the following article 

 on the Bill : — 



The mea.-ure introduced late on Tuesday night by Sir William 

 Hart Dyke, the Vice-President of the Council, may prove to be 

 of far greater practical importance than many a measure that 

 may for the moment loom larger in the public eye. It is a 

 Government Bill for organizing throughout England and Wales 

 at least the beginnings of a system of technical education. The 

 Scotch Office is meanwhile preparing an analogous Bill for 

 Scotland, which it is hoped will proceed pari passu with the 

 English IBill through the House ; and the Government intends, 

 if possible, to carry both measures this session. It is quite 

 time. There has been plenty of talk about technical education ; 

 and we want action in the matter. The need is admitted on all 

 hands. It is a crying need, as much recognized in such authori- 

 tative statements as the Report of the late Commission as in 

 the reports of examiners appointed by the Technical Institute 

 at South Kensington. The former admits the great supe- 

 riority of foreign nations over ourselves in this matter, 

 and shows how both France and Germany make much 

 more serious and successful attempts than we to train their 

 workmen in the theory as well as in the practice of their 

 trades. One result is the increased severity of foreign competi- 

 tion, from which British industiy is suffering in all directions. 

 What we lately stated, on the authority of the Committee of the 

 London Chamber of Commerce, with regard to the competition 

 of German with English clerks in London and the north may be 

 applied, with little change, to the foreign workmen. They are 

 not above learning their trade. They know that their bread 

 depends on their excelling, and they strive to excel, with their 

 Governments behind them, showing them, by carefully organized 

 instruction, what is the best way. As yet, in England, we have 

 done little more, by way of meeting this activity of our competitors, 

 than to build a fine Institute at South Kensington. Not that 

 that Institute is not doing good. Its very existence is a protest 

 against the inveterate English belief in rule of thumb. It has as 

 yet only touched the fringe of the questions before it ; but, 

 while it has done something positive by such means as teaching 

 teachers, it has also done not a little to test the actual state ol 

 technical knowledge in many trades. Two months ago we 

 called attention to the reports of its examiners, and pointed out 

 how unfavourable on the whole they were. In the bleaching, 

 dyeing, cotton-spinning, paper-making, carriage-building, and 

 other industries, very few candidates showed any theoretical 

 knowledge to speak of; on the one hand they were ignorant o 

 the rudiments of chemistry, on the other of the rudiments ol 

 drawing. In a word, they failed to link the primary educatior 

 which they might be supposed to have received with the business 

 of their handicrafts. 



The Government Bill proposes to do much to render thi; 

 state of things less common. So far as can be judged from th( 

 Vice-President's speech, the Bill being not yet printed, it is i 

 Bill for enabling local authorities — generally School Boards- 

 acting in concert with the Science and Art Department, to pro 

 vide technical instruction for pupils who have left the elementar 

 schools, and in certain cases for those who have not yet lef 

 them. What the mover calls the operative clause enables loca 

 authorities to provide technical schools, and at the same time ti 

 combine with other local authorities by way of saving expense 

 The power of rating is given, but at the same time the rate 

 payers are to have a veto on " any proposal under the Bill. 

 The combination clause, w hich permits the joint action to whic 

 we have referred, is that on which Sir William Hart Dyk 

 relies to convince the public that his Bill will be cheaply an 

 easily worked. Another, with the same object, is the clans 

 which enables the local authority to make any arrangemeni 

 which it may deem expedient for supplementing the technic: 

 instruction at present given in the schools. As to the agricu 

 tural districts, and the teaching of agricultural subjects, th 

 Vice-President admits that his Bill will not do very much, am 

 indeed, it would seem that the provision of that instruction, : 

 was urged earlier in the evening, is beyond the power of th 

 Science and Art Department. The question of London, an 

 the London vote when debatable questions arise, is one whic 

 the Government have foreseen, but on which they can on 



