164 SCIENCE TEACHING. 



Council determined, with the approval of the Department, to appoint Mr. 

 Forth, whose experience as principal assistant in the Manchester Technical 

 Institute, seemed precisely of the character to suit the industrial conditions of 

 a larg-e manufacturing" centre like Belfast. 



The Technical Instruction Committee, at their earlier meetings, agreed that 

 the efforts of the institute should be mainly directed towards the needs of the 

 staple industries and trades of the city, while at the same time giving such 

 instruction and knowledge as would facilitate the development of new indus- 

 tries. The instruction to be given will be open to both sexes, and will comprise 

 complete evening" courses in Science and Technology, the subjects being 

 grouped under the headings : Preparatory, Mathematical, Mechanical Engi- 

 neering, Naval Architecture, Textile Industries, Electrical Engineering and 

 Applied Chemistry, commercial subjects, women's work, and Art. The Art 

 department has been specially provided for : new buildings have been secured, 

 and four masters, specialists in designing, drawing from life, painting- and still 

 life, and modelling, respectively, have been eng^aged. With a view to securing 

 that, when built, the Institute would be filled with pupils in a condition to take 

 advantage of special instruction, the Committee have gradually induced and 

 enabled the various teaching institutions of the borough to take their proper 

 place in the general scheme. The coming session will see an org-anised system 

 of instruction at work in various schools in different parts of the city. 



The following institutions have been merged in the general scheme : — The 

 Government School of Art, the School of Applied Science (Model School), the 

 Technical School (Hastings Street), the Evening Technical School of Science 

 (the Royal Academical Institution), and the Working- Men's Institute. No 

 institution giving evening technical instruction now remains outside the 

 g-eneral scheme. The Committee have further allocated ;^ 1,900 of the first 

 year's g-rant in capital sums to day secondary schools for equipment and 

 apparatus, in order to enable these schools to meet the difficulties of initial cost 

 in connection with the Department's new reg-ulations and programme. 



The Borough Council of Cork have likewise done a good year's work. 

 They formed a new Technical Instruction Committee, at the suggestion of the 

 Department, and this Committee has formulated a scheme for the borough, of 

 which the Department has approved. The scheme includes the establishment 

 of a central Municipal Technical School, and a system of co-ordination with 

 existing- educational institutions similar to that which has been adopted in 

 Belfast. There already existed in Cork the nucleus of a central Technical 

 School in the Municipal Schools of Science and Art. These schools, better 

 known as the Crawford Municipal Technical Schools, were presented to the 

 City of Cork by the late Mr. W. H. Crawford, in 1884. The buildings are 

 excellent in quality, and comprise Sculpture and Picture Galleries, Library, 

 Lecture Theatre, Class Rooms for Art, and some rooms for Science and 

 Technology. The Art School is fairly well equipped, and possesses a fine set of 

 casts taken directly from the antique, under the personal supervision of Canova. 

 These were presented by the Pope to George IV., and given by that King to 

 the City of Cork. The buildings, however, will be quite insufficient in size for 

 the proposed development. Accordingly, the Technical Instruction Committee 

 in Cork are considering the best means of providing- further accommodation 

 for their central Technical Institute. 



In Cork, also, the Municipal Council have appointed a Head Science 

 Master for their proposed Technical Institute, who will render the same service 

 as in Belfast in the organisation of the scheme, and in the aiding and stimula- 

 tion of the existing schools, which should do their part as feeders to the central 

 Institute when it is fully at work. The same procedure was adopted in the 

 appointment of this principal, and, after due consideration of the candidates, 

 Mr. O'Keeffe, a technological teacher who has had fifteen years' experience at 



