viir TECHNICAL EDUCATION 209 



Committee have been the means of initiating action 

 and of securing progress of such a character as few 

 voluntary bodies can claim. In addition to their pro- 

 pagandist work, the Executive Committee promptly 

 brought their objects before the Legislature by the 

 introduction of certain measures into the House of 

 Commons. Under the title of " The Technical Educa- 

 tion Bill " two measures were introduced by me (as hon. 

 secretary of the National Association) in February, 

 1888, and in February, 1889, respectively; while in 

 March of the last-named year the Right Hon. Arthur 

 H. D. Acland, M.P. (at that time one of the secretaries 

 of the Association), brought forward "The Technical 

 Schools (Local Authorities) Bill." None of these 

 measures was placed upon the statute book, but 

 in the year 1889 only two years after the establish- 

 ment of the Association the Government passed 

 the Technical Instruction Act. Although this Act 

 was not altogether in accord with the views I had 

 put forward, I gladly accepted the measure as a satis- 

 factory instalment. In this connection I feel I ought 

 to mention the special services rendered by the Right 

 Hon. Sir W. Hart- Dyke, Bart., M.P., by Sir William 

 Mather, M.P., and by the Rt. Hon. W. H. Smith, M.P., 

 then Leader of the House. 



In the following year I brought forward a Bill 

 "intended to clear up any doubt as to the legality of 

 the provision of a technical and manual instruction in 

 public elementary schools " a Bill which did not pass. 



It may be of interest to refer to the first appropria- 

 tion of Government funds for technical and secondary 

 education, which was made on July 2ist, 1890, when 

 Mr. Goschen announced that the sum intended for the 

 extinction of licences (now known as "Whisky 

 Money ") would be handed over to the County and 



