SCIENCE TEACHING. 167 



Wood-carving', Furniture-making', Basket-makingf, and other industrial subjects 

 can be taught. It also includes provision for instruction in Cookery, Laundry- 

 work, Domestic Economy, Needlework, &c., in the girls' schools. 



The majority of the smaller Irish towns, whose character is more rural than 

 industrial, will, in all probability, come within county schemes, and of schemes 

 of technical instruction which include such towns, typical examples will be 

 found under the next heading. 



The counties have been active in their requests for the assistance of officers 

 of the Department in the formulation of schemes. The 

 The Counties. position of the counties in reference to schemes of Tech- 

 nical Instruction, and to Agricultural schemes under the 

 Department, involves a complication which it is not always easy for the repre- 

 sentatives of rural districts to appreciate. Schemes for counties are chiefly 

 aided from that portion of the Department's funds which is administered with 

 the concurrence of the Agricultural Board, the proportion of the Department's 

 funds coming through the Board of Technical Instruction generally being 

 considerably smaller in rural districts. Rural Councillors are sometimes apt, 

 in consequence, to feel a reluctance in approving of a County Council rate 

 being applied in aid of technical instruction schemes in the urban districts of 

 the county. It is necessary to make it very clear that the funds of the 

 Department, no matter which channel they come through, are meant to be 

 regarded as a whole, and that the schemes under the Act to which a county 

 rate applies include schemes for the benefit of rural districts for which moneys 

 come that are not available for urban schemes. Moreover, as pointed out in 

 Part I. of the Report, the country towns in Ireland are intimately bound up in 

 many ways with rural life, and are natural centres for many forms of technical 

 instruction of which pupils from rural districts can avail themselves. In most 

 of these towns a large proportion of pupils from siirrounding rural districts 

 attend the schools ; by a system of bursaries or scholarships pupils from more 

 distant rural districts can be helped to avail themselves of the teaching of these 

 schools ; and a system of technical instruction by means of itinerant teachers 

 visiting rural districts or rural schools, usually can best be directed from such 

 centres. The Department, accordingly, in considering schemes of technical 

 instruction for counties, is obliged to arrange for the closest co-ordination 

 between the work ot its Agricultural Branch and that of its Technical Instruc- 

 tion Branch ; and the Department's scheme for a county as a whole must be 

 looked for under both heads. The schemes for which the funds of the Board 

 of Technical Instruction are available in counties have been conceived with 

 this idea carefully in mind. It will be understood that the task of organising 

 Technical Instruction in the counties is one which will naturally take a longer 

 time to complete than in urban centres. Considerable progress has, neverthe- 

 less, been made. 



Twenty-four counties have had schemes under consideration, and many of 

 these are well advanced. About half of them are so far forward that a con- 

 siderable portion of the scheme will be in operation during the school session 

 igoi-2. Five counties, viz., Carlow, Fermanagh, Galway, Meath, and Water- 

 ford, have had schemes fully approved ; and those for Clare, Kerry, Louth, 

 Queen's County, Sligo, and Tipperary North, are almost complete. 



An instance of a county scheme of Technical Instruction (as distinct from 

 Agriculture) which deals with some of the small provincial towns is that for 

 North Tipperary. This scheme includes the towns of Nenagh, Thuries, and 

 Roscrea. An economic system of co-ordination has been arranged with the 

 County Council Committee, of which, for example, an instructress in Cookery, 

 Laundry-work, and Home-sewing can give lessons in these centres, and other 

 centres of the county, such as Templemore, Borrisoleigh, and Borrisokane. 



