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contributed by him to the Industrial Review, has pointed out 

 that the only effectual means of fostering technical educa- 

 tion is to take the industries which exist and endeavour to 

 improve them or lead them into new developments. This is a 

 work which requires patient and prolonged investigation, and 

 for carrying it out the requisite staff should be provided by 

 Government, as the funds of the Victoria Technical Institute 

 are altogether insufficient for such an undertaking. It is of 

 course futile to expect that by establishing technical institu- 

 tions new industries, which will absorb a considerable amount 

 of labour now devoted to agriculture, can be brought at 

 once into existence, thereby lessening the pressure on 

 agriculture and providing employment unaffected by the 

 vicissitudes of agricultural seasons. The artizans and handi- 

 craftsmen have to depend upon the local market for the sale 

 of their wares, and if a succession of bad seasons brings 

 distress on the agriculturists who are their customers, they 

 themselves suffer along with the latter.^'-® The best mode 

 in which special industries can be encouraged is to introduce 

 cottage industries which can be carried on by agricultural 

 peasants or their womenfolk during the non-cultivation season 

 in places where there are special facilities for carrying on 

 such industries and to make the articles produced as widely 

 known as possible so as to create a demand for them. All 

 this requires time and expenditure of money which would, 

 however, in the long run, be repaid manifold. As regards the 

 introduction of improved tools, Mr. Havell remarks that the 

 native workman, is not too slow in adopting superior tools or 

 simple and effective mechanical contrivances when they are 

 placed before him. In large towns carpenters and brass- 

 smiths are found using English or American lathes worked 

 by a treadle, and imported tools for turning the thread of 

 screws, drawing wire, &q., are commonly used by goldsmiths 

 and brassmiths. Mr. Havell observes that even in the re- 

 motest villages carpenters use English saws, planes, chisels, 

 &c., and he suggests the employment of a few commercial 

 travellers to demonstrate the advantages of using such tools 

 to the artizans in the mofussil. It is desirable that some 

 decisive action should be taken by Government in the direc- 

 tions pointed out by the gentlemen above named, or that the 

 Victoria Technical Institute should be sufficiently subsidized 



'** The primitive handicraftsman, obsei'ves Mr. Marshall, " was far from enjoying 

 unbroken prosperity ; war and scarcity were constantly pressing on him and his neigh- 

 bom-s hindering his work and stopping their demand for his wares. But, he was inclined 

 to take good and evil fortune, like sunshine and rain, as things beyond his control : his 

 iuxgers worked on, but his brain was seldom weary." 



