SCIENCE TEACHING. 163 



and diversified industries. To establish a system of technical instruction 

 which shall dovetail into and supplement the work of existing- workshops and 

 factories is an easy matter compared with establishing- a system in a country 

 in which there is a general absence of manufactures. The limitations which 

 have been natural for technical instruction in England and Scotland would 

 therefore, to a large extent, be out of place in Ireland : and to increase the 

 difficulties ot the problem in Ireland the Councils (County and Urban), through 

 whom it is proposed, as far as possible, to work schemes of technical instruc- 

 tion, are themselves new to their duties ; in fact, they are in their first period of 

 office. The Department, however, as already indicated, desire to enlist the 

 co-operation of local authorities as much as possible in this work, and have, 

 with this view, delegated to them important functions — the preparation and 

 administration of local schemes. In order to suggest action to the local bodies, 

 and to serve as a guide, a pamphlet of " Suggestions " was issued to them at 

 an early date ; and it was followed later on by a memorandum on the powers 

 of these bodies, and the procedure to be followed. In most cases, however, it 

 was found both practicable and advisable to meet the local authorities in 

 conference, and to explain to them the provisions of the Acts dealing with 

 technical instruction, to make a statement as to the funds available, and to 

 indicate the kind of action to be taken. In the great majority of cases, a 

 scheme based on a survey of the local conditions and local institutions has, at 

 the request of the local committees, been suggested by the Department. These 

 conferences occupied, and are still occupying, a large part of the time of the 

 Department's officers. An idea of the extent to which this is the case may be 

 g-athered from the fact that one inspector from the Technical Instruction Branch, 

 between September, 1900, and March, 1901, attended 62 conferences, and 

 visited 152 institutions in connexion with local schemes. 



The Countv Naturally, the six county boroughs (where the con- 



Boroutfhs ditions of the problem were not unlike those of England 



° * and Scotland) first occupied a share of attention. 



The County Borough of Dublin has not, so far, [August, 1901,] sub- 

 mitted a scheme for approval. 



The County Borough of Belfast, shortly after the establishment of the 

 Department, formed a Technical Instruction Committee of twenty-one mem- 

 bers, fifteen of whom were members of the Corporation, and six were co-opted 

 members. They also took a step of great interest, and worthy of imitation in 

 other places, in forming two Consultative Committees, one of manufacturers, 

 and one of educationists, to advise the Technical Instruction Committee. 

 These Consultative Committees have been found of much service in the actual 

 work of planning out the scheme for Belfast. Several conferences took place 

 between the Department and the Technical Instruction Committee of Belfast, 

 and, after some time, a comprehensive scheme for the borough was formulated 

 as the result of these conferences and approved by the Department. This 

 scheme involves the erection of a Central Municipal Technical Institute, at an 

 estimated cost of ;j^ 7 1,000. The money for the building- of this Institute is 

 being raised on loan by the Corporation, and will constitute part of the local 

 contribution to the scheme. 



At an early stage of the work the Belfast Council, on the suggestion of the 

 Department, resolved to appoint a principal for their Technical Institute, so 

 that they might have the assistance of an expert in the org-anisation of the 

 scheme from the beginning, and in the work of stimulating the existing day 

 and evening schools of the borough in the essential function they have to fulfil 

 as feeders to the central institution when, a year or two hence, its doors are 

 open to receive pupils. After a consideration of the various candidates who 

 applied for the post, and whose names were submitted to the Department, the 



