48o 



NATURE 



[March 15, 1900 



Evidence of progress in various departments and grades of 

 ■education in Liverpool is afforded by the report of the Tech- 

 •nical Instruction Committee for the year 1899. Though 

 nothing has yet been done by legislation to improve the local 

 organisation of education, or to promote the unification of 

 local administration, steps have been taken in Liverpool 

 towards the co-ordination of educational effort in the City, and 

 so promote harmonious development. By reconstituting its 

 Technical Instruction Committee so as to include not only 

 educational experts nominated by the City Council itself, but 

 also a considerable proportion of representatives of the School 

 Board, and others nominated by the University College and the 

 ■secondary schools, a local authority has been established for 

 the administration of technical and secondary education — 

 'though the functions of the Committee as regards the latter 

 branch are necessarily for the present mainly consultative apd 

 advisory. By bringing within the influence of one adminis- 

 trative body, consisting of representatives from all the recognised 

 •important public and professional educational organisations in 

 the City, the various special branches of Technical Education, 

 'the Committee hope to ensure the continued success and the 

 progressive development of such work as is required by the 

 reeds of the City. As the Committee has been recognised by 

 the Department of Science and Art as an organisation for the 

 .promotion of secondary education, it will be free to encourage 

 any branches of technical and higher education which are 

 •considered deserving of support. 



A RETURN just published as a Blue Book shows that the 

 total amount expended on technical education during the year 

 1897-8 in England, Wales and Ireland was 860,105/. ; and 

 ithat the estimated total expenditure on technical education 

 during the year 1898-9 was 874,612/. These amounts are ex- 

 clusive of the sums allocated to intermediate and technical 

 education under the Welsh Intermediate Education Act, 1889. 

 The amounts raised by loan on the security of the local rate 

 under the Technical Instruction Acts were — in 1897-8, 69,334/.; 

 •in 1898-9, 133,583/. The total amount of the residue received 

 tinder the Local Taxation (Customs and Excise) Act, by the 

 councils of counties and county boroughs in England (excepting 

 the County of Monmouth) in respect of the financial year 1897-8 

 was 834,827/., of which 759,400/. was appropriated to edu- 

 cational purposes, and 75,426/. to relief of rates ; the latter sum 

 including 42,108/. devoted by the London County Council to 

 relief of rates. The total amount expended on technical edu- 

 ^cation during the year 1897-8 was 826,450/., and the estimated 

 total expenditure during the year 1898-9 was 834,908/. The 

 total amount of the residue paid to the thirteen County Councils 

 and the Councils of the three County Boroughs in Wales and 

 JMonmouth was 40,062/., and these local authorities are devoting 

 the whole of it to intermediate and technical education, chiefly 

 •under the Welsh Intermediate Education Act, 1889. The esti- 

 jnated total amount to be devoted annually to intermediate and 

 technical education, under the Welsh Intermediate Education 

 Act — i.e. out of the residue and the local rate — is 43,304/. In 

 the case of Ireland, the return shows that the total amount 

 expended on technical education by twelve local authorities 

 •during the year 1897-8 was 5649/., and that the estimated.total 

 •expenditure on technical education by twelve local authorities 

 ■during the year 1898-9 was 4523/. 



Prof. Robert Wallace, professor ot agriculture and rural 

 ■economy in the University of Edinburgh, does not agree with 

 the suggestion of the Agricultural Education Committee that, 

 in connection with elementary schools, provision should be 

 «iade for practical work on plots of ground attached to the 

 schools. In an address delivered a few weeks ago on "Nature 

 Knowledge Teaching introduced by the Scotch Code of 1899 " 

 ^Edinburgh : The Darien Press), he showed that many edu- 

 •cational authorities at home and abroad are of the opinion that 

 farm work at school as a means for training the sons of those 

 who are engaged in agricultural pursuits is impracticable and 

 valueless. Such work would only be playing at farming, and 

 •would not rouse into full vigour the real working power of a 

 •boy any more than playing at shops develops a knowledge of 

 the laws of commerce. What is wanted is individual interest 

 and responsibility, and a knowledge of principles. The practical 

 work which might usefully be done is stated by Prof. Wallace 

 ^s follows : — {a) Laboratory work, the collection of specimens 

 of all sorts of suitable interesting objects, to form local school 

 «iuseums and home collections, (h) The systematic examina- 



NO. 1585, VOL. 61] 



tion of specimens by the aid Oi lenses and other means, 

 (r) The growth, for experimental purposes or for ornament, of 

 a great variety of seeds, and of a select number of plants from 

 bulbs, roots, and cuttings in flower-pots, which, on a scale 

 suitable to the local circumstances, could be duplicated at home 

 by individual pupils, by the pupils from one household, and 

 even by groups of pupils who live contiguous to each other — it 

 being so arranged that each member of the combination should 

 have a right to claim the necessary attention to one or more 

 pots as exclusively his or her own, while the lessons to be 

 learned from all the pots would be common to every one. 

 {(i) Field demonstrations, in which the objects of interest 

 would be, so tb say, infinite in variety, {e) And for the benefit 

 of older children and those who have left school, as well as the 

 more enlightened of their parents, school libraries of useful 

 books on rural subjects, which every one could not be expected 

 to 



The address delivered before the Association oi Technical 

 Institutions, on January 24, by the President, Sir Swire Smith, 

 just published by the Association, contains many sound remarks 

 upon technical education from the commercial and industrial 

 aspects, and reasons why it should receive the most liberal 

 national encouragement. A University Don once remarked to 

 the parent who wished his son to take up some scientific subject : 

 "Sir, we know nothing of science here, we don't even teach it," 

 and this spirit (unfortunately, not unknown at the present time) 

 is responsible for the prejudice which manufacturers have against 

 the schools and higher education. Place by the side of the dis- 

 dainful expression referred to, the following testimony of Sir 

 Swire Smith as to the methods and benefits of education in the 

 principles of science : — " In the dual enquiry of the Royal Com- 

 mission on technical instruction, in which we investigated not 

 only systems of education, but their effect upon industry in this 

 and competing countries, we visited in each foreign country, 

 wherever possible, those eminent industrial establishments whose 

 products were largely exported to the United Kingdom. We 

 followed the processes from the raw material to the finished pro- 

 duct, and we Interviewed the specialists responsible for excel- 

 lence or superio.ity, nearly all of whom had been trained in 

 technical schools. In visiting the schools in which this special 

 knowledge had been obtained, we found students qualifying 

 themselves for their special work in the factory, by pursuing 

 courses of training under excellent teachers and with the most 

 perfect apparatus. We did not see much of what may be called 

 'trade teaching,' although in some departments of industry, in 

 textiles, for example, the designing, weaving, dyeing and finish- 

 ing departments were in some cases very complete. The schools 

 in their fundamental principles were claimed to be schools of 

 science or art, applied to industry, and in many of the smaller towns 

 the most important schools were teaching purescience and pureart 

 as a basis, with departments for the application of science and art 

 to local industries. The teaching of principles was the same in 

 all the great schools, but in their application there was as much 

 variety as in the industries and crafts to which the teaching was 

 applied. But in following the students from the schools to the 

 workshops and factories, and in ascertaining the effect of their 

 instruction upon their calling, the evidence to my mind was con- 

 clusive that the great progress of our rivals may be traced 

 directly to the influences of their schools. And not less con- 

 vincing were the illustrations of technical training afforded under 

 less -favourable conditions than in our own country, proving that 

 the same educational influences had been at work in advancing 

 our own industries." No more sound expression as to what 

 technical education should mean, and what may be expected 

 from it, could be given than is included in Sir Swire Smith's 

 remarks, and they should receive careful consideration from all 

 who are concerned with the progress of national education and 

 the development of our industries. 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 



London. 



Royal Society, January 25. — "On the Effects of Strain 

 on the Thermo-electric Qualities of Metals. Part ii." By Prof. 

 Magnus Maclean, D.Sc. Communicated by Lord Kelvin, 

 G.C.V.O., F.R.S. 



A. — " Thermo-electric difference between free wires and wires 

 previously subjected to longitudinal extension and lateral com- 

 pression, by drawing them through the holes of a draw-p!ate." 



