February 14, 1895] 



NA TURE 



379 



automatic expimion gear, under the xaxaf cinditimi of work- 

 ing which the au'hor suppos s ; and as the diJica-ision on the 

 pap:r was adj lurned until the next micting, we nj ly leave the 

 subject for the present. 



The summer meeiinji; of this Institution will be held in Glas- 

 gow this year, commencing Tuesday, July 30, and concluding 

 on the foil jwing Friday. 



THE ADVANCE OF TECHNICAL 

 EDUCATION. 



T^HE present slate of technical education in England is, on 

 the whole, satisfactory iVom the scientific pmnt of view. 

 The authorities having the fundi arising fiom ihe Customs and 

 Excise Act under their control, are bi-ginning to see that in- 

 struction in the principles of science is by far the most 

 important of the requirements. They are also coming 

 to recognise thai immediate result-: cannot be expected from 

 their work — ihat they are laying a fiunlation raiher than erect- 

 ing a complex e litice. Tne Technicil I is'rncuon Comni'tees 

 who have not sufficiently realised thi-i, will find ihat they will 

 have to materially modify tfieir at jirescnt too ambitious 

 schemes, postponing much of the in-Jtruc ion in subjects of 

 technology until a more thorough acquaintance *ith the funda- 

 mentil princijjles of science underlying all such purely technical 

 education has been provided, for it is only liy such means that 

 the stability of iheir edu.;aiional sap-rstructute can be en-ureJ. 

 There are no groin 's, therefore, for taking a pe-simi'tic vie* 

 of the future of technical instr iction. One of the mos' gruiKy- 

 in" signs of development is the large nu iitier o' Si:holarship5 

 now awarded, and tlie increise in the number o^ c •mpititors 

 for thetn. Tne current number of the Record ol Technical and 

 Secondary Education ^ets forth in detail a statement as to the 

 scholarships and exhibitions actually awarde I, durin;; the year 

 1893-4, by Count/ an 1 County Uoroug 1 C ■uncds. This raoit 

 valuable Keinm siows the number ol schcdar.tiips an 1 e<hibi- 

 tions awarded ; the vilu : and length of tenure ol t'le award-; ; 

 where held; conlition^to be fulfilled by t tie candidates ; the 

 etamining bodv, and the subjecis of examination. Subjoined 

 is a summary of ihe informatiun. 



Scholarshins ani 

 Exhibilions. 



Scholarships and Exhibitions No. of 

 tenable at Councils. 



(1) Technical, and Science 



and Art Schools ... 36 . 



(2) Secondary Schools ... 37 . 

 (3I Universities or Inililu- 



tionsof University rank 28 

 (4) Short cjurses of instruc- 

 tion 25 . 



Nu liber 

 awarded. 



Total yearly 

 value. 

 i. 



3456 ... 10,620 

 1789 ... 20,409 



362 



6,783 

 3.825 



6168 41,637 



Sixty individual counties and county boroughs are represented 

 in the above summiry. Two oth -rs, Demy and Sheffield, 

 allocate respectively ^325 and ,,^1000 annually to sc'iolarships, 

 and taking thcie into considera'ion, it appears that the total 

 sum ex])jDded for the promotion of technical and secondaiy 

 education by scholar-,liips, during the year ending March 

 1894, was, in round number;, ^^43,000. But this by no means 

 represents the limits of expend ture under the scholarship he. id. 

 It does not t.ake the renewal of scholarships into a.count, and 

 there are still seven local authorities whose scholarship schemes 

 have not come into operation. Also, the scholarship schemes 

 will unloabtedly be fur. her developeil as the work goe> on ; in 

 faC, it is esi mated ihat before vcy long as much as ^^30,000 

 will be spent annually on scholarships by the London Technical 

 Education Board alone. Truly, these are halcyon days for ihe 

 promising young student, however humble his state of life 

 may be. 



As to the values of the scholarship?, they vary from a few 

 shillings, as a fee for a short course of instruction, to ^"60 a year 

 tenable for three years. The lower limit of age is usually 

 thirteen, and the higher, tiventy-five, though we sei ni 

 reason why such a maximum age should be made absolu e. In 

 some caies, the income of the parents of competitors must 

 not exceed £,ifiO a year, but in others — London is ihe most 

 notable instance — the parents of competitors for junior scholar- 

 ships must not be in receipt of mire than ^^150 a year. 



NO. 1320, VOL. 51] 



Another important statement in the current Record shows the 

 plans for promoting tech deal and second iry education in each 

 of the counties and county boroughs of Knglmd. From this it 

 appears that, of the no locil authorities in England, 96 are 

 giving the whole, and 13 part of their grants to educational 

 purposes. Preston is the reinainin; autiiori y, and it devotes 

 the whole o' the g ant available— about ^"i6oo per year — to the 

 relief of the boiough rate. But it should be siated at 

 once, that Preston possesses a well-endowed " Harrb 

 Institute," where technical education has been carried 

 on for years. The total amount avadible by local 

 authorities is about ;f 744, 000, of which about ^^ 144,000 is 

 diverted to the relief of the rates, leaving ;if 600,000 lor expendi- 

 ture on education. We are .'-anguine enough to brbeve that, 

 before long, most o^ the ^144,000 at present devo'ed to general 

 county pu poses will be exi'cn 1 d in advancing technical educa- 

 tion. L'lnlon alone is lesp m-ible for ;^ii4,oooof this mis- 

 applied balancf, bat as its educaiimal scheme matures, it will 

 doubtless absorti the wh >le am lunt ava lable. It is to be hoped 

 that the authoiities applying the remaining /'30,ooo to rates, 

 will soon see how deirime ital their action is to their own 

 interests. 



In this connection it is nece sary to ondemn the application 

 to rates of any unexpended balance of the grant available. In 

 every county and ouniy bo ough there are persons who utterly 

 fail to reali-^e that the intecsts of science are the intere-ts of 

 industry. To them, immed ate advantages in the shape of a 

 minute reduction of the rates, appeals far more than prospective 

 developments ol our naiionil industiie^. Had such people the 

 control of affairs, technical instruction would indeed be curtailed 

 wi'hin narrow limits. Fortunately, they represent but a small 

 minori y in the County Councils ; nevertheless, their influence 

 is occasionally manifest. Ever since the Technical Education 

 Acts came into fo ce, attempts have been made here an 1 there 

 to use fir geneial county purposes the funds available and neces- 

 sary for education. But if the w uk is to be successfully carried 

 out, it is essential that the Technical Instruction Committees 

 should have entire control ol the grants allocated to technical 

 education. There is far too much uncertainty about the grants 

 even now, and the County Cou cils which are inclined to exer- 

 cise a veto as to the destination of th-: surplus funds of their 

 Technical Education Committees, will soon find that self- 

 respecting members ol the Comm ttees will retire from the work. 

 Recently, ho.vever, one or two Councils have shown their 

 incapacity to uniers:and the magnitude of the problem before 

 them, by voting the unexpended balance of their grants to the 

 relief of rates. Tnis action is tantamount to declaring that the 

 funds at the disposal of the Com uittee are in excess of what is 

 required ; whereas, it is hardly too much to say that addi.ional 

 secondary schools are needed in almost every county and county 

 borough in England, only to mention one way in which the 

 money might be expendeL For the balance to be diverted 

 fiom education is bad enough, but no great foresight is needed 

 to see that, once the action has bien taken, there is no knowing 

 where or when it will stop. Perhaps the county of Hampshire is 

 the most notable instance in which a County Council has crippled 

 the work of its Technical Instruction Committee. In November 

 last according to the Southampton Times, the Council resolved 

 to appropriate, for general purposes, /'6000 from the surplus 

 funds which had been accumulated by the Technical Instruction 

 Committee with the idea of evenually using it in educational 

 developments. Without taking the views of the Committee into 

 consideration, the Council appears to have calmly confiscated the 

 balance resulting from economical administration, and by sodoing 

 not only discouraged careful expenditure, but in one fell swoop 

 rendered the Committee powerless to deal in the future with 

 matters which alone coul J be met by exceptional means. Surely 

 it is not too much to expect a Council to have confidence in 

 the ability of the Technical Instruction Committee, and to allow 

 it to know is own needs. At any rate, a Committee whose 

 opinion is disregarded must soon losec mfiJence in itself. It is 

 a matter for congiatulaiion that County Councils generally have 

 not treated their Committees in the same way as the elect of 

 th- county of Hampshire. 



One of ihimoit refreshing repor s we have seen for some 

 lime has reccnly been issued by the Derby -hire County Council. 

 The report is satisfactory, not so much on account of vvo k 

 accomplished, but beciuse it affords ev dene; that the Committee 

 seems to have been brought to a good understamling as to what 

 technical instruction should mean. One of the chief difi5cultie 



