400 



NA TURE 



[February 22, 1894 



The Barbados, Antigua, and Trinidid rainfalls have been sub- 

 jected to the same treatment with the same results ; but it will 

 be noticed in the following table that the smoothed Jamaica 

 rainfall rises and falls with much greater regularity than the 

 smoothed rainfall in Barbados, Antigua, and Trinidad ; the 

 irregularity in the last island is due to the circumstance that we 

 are dealing with the rainfall at one station only, namely the 

 Botanic Gardens, instead of the rainfall deduced from many 

 stations, as ia the other islands. 



ON PREPARING THE WAY FOR TECHNICAL 

 INSTRUCTION. 



CIR PHILIP MAGNUS discoursed on methods of tech- 

 nical instruction on February 14, at the College of 

 Preceptors. In the course of his address he pointed out that 

 our intermediate schools were generally described as in a state 

 of chaos, and it could scarcely be expected that so nebulous a 

 system would be largely influenced by the definite movement in 



The Barbados rainfall was discussed by Sir Rawson -W. 

 Rawson in 1873,^ ^"^ indeed it neither was, nor yet is easy to 

 make out the connection between the years 1843 ^^'^ 1863 ; but 

 since 1863 it is all plain sailing, especially when aided by Jamaica 

 on one side and Antigua on the other. 



I have written to Mr. Hart, the superintendent of the Botanic 

 Gardens, Trinidad, asking him to assist me in getting the 

 Trinidad rainfall into better form. 



Maxwell Hall. 



' Nature, vol. viii. i>\>. 245, 547 : vol. x. p. 263 ; and vol. xi. p. 327. 

 NO. 1269, VOL. 49] 



favour of technical education. As a fact, they had been much, 

 less affected than the institutions above and below them, and^ 

 probably in consequence of the recognised absence of organisa- 

 tion. It might be that the Royal Commission about to be ap- 

 pointed would introduce order into this chaos, and that when, 

 each school knew exactly its position in the school hierarchy- 

 its relation to the schools above and below it, and the special 

 and particular purpose it was required to serve — our interme-. 

 diate schools, both first and second grade, would become more 

 efficient than they now were in preparing the way for that 



