EDUCATION. loi 



more efficient would not make them " much more costly," 

 Professor Campbell replied that he did not think so. It 

 was a matter of system. He instanced the work done in 

 the matter of agricultural experiments. " There has been 

 a vast amount of excellent work done in Great Britain in 

 that direction ; I myself took part in it and attempted to 

 use the results of other institutions for educational pur- 

 poses ; but it was almost impossible to do so because of 

 the want of co-ordination between the work of the different 

 institutions." We know what that refers to. 



In Ireland, under Sir Horace Plunkett's scheme, so the 

 same Professor Campbell, working under the Irish Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture and Technical Instruction, went on to 

 show, thanks to clear insight into the matter and sound judg- 

 ment practised, things are strikingly different. There the 

 initiative is jealously reserved to the central body, whereas 

 in England the central body contents itself with supervising 

 what the County Councils are expected to initiate, and 

 often enough do not, having powers to stimulate or restrain 

 reserved to itself, which clearly do not go far enough. In 

 Ireland it is the central body, that is, the Department 

 "which initiates, directs and compels." There the money 

 annually raised for the purpose of agricultural education 

 " is not given to the County Council to administer, as is 

 the case in this country, but it is given to the central 

 Department, to be administered through the County Councils 

 in accordance with schemes approved by the Department 

 itself ; and it is given on the condition that each county 

 participating must raise a rate for the same purpose. No 

 money is given to any county unless a rate is raised." " In 

 Ireland all the money goes through the central authority, 

 who has the power to withhold it from them (the County 

 Councils) or give it to them according to the way they make 

 use of it." In respect of teaching arrangements, the central 

 authority has plainly put it this way : " You shall have no 

 college until you have trained teachers ; you shall have 

 no agricultural school until you have had itinerant instruc- 

 tors. . . . We have got into serious difficulty with County 

 Councils through refusing to sanction the appointment of 



