568 



NA TURE 



[April 17, 1902 



episcopal charges and religious newspapers as a gross 

 injustice and an "intolerable strain" upon the benevo- 

 lence of Chur( li jjeople. Accordingly, the Government 

 has been urged by the advocates of the denominational 

 principle to make two concessions by way of relief: (i) 

 to increase the public grant so as to make all voluntary 

 subscriptions unnecessary, and yet to leave the existing 

 managers free to preserve the distinctive denominational 

 character of their schools, and (2) to repeal that clause 

 (the fourteenth) in the Education Act of 1870 which 

 forbids the teaching of creeds and formularies iff the 

 Board Schools, and so to permit the ministers of religion 

 to give separate instruction in those schools to the 

 children of their respective flocks. Both of these 

 proposals were accepted by the Government and em- 

 bodied in the abortive proposal of 1896. The second, 

 however, does not appear in the new Bill. The Cowper 

 Temple clause is not repealed, but will still remain 

 applicable, not only to all existing Board .Schools, but 

 presumably to all new elementary schools to be provided 

 by the proposed education authority. But to the former 

 of the two demands, the Bill makes a liberal response. 

 Denominational schools are to be financed and sup- 

 ported in future at the expense of the rates, on the easy 

 condition that the managers provide and maintain in re- 

 pair the school building — not, it should be observed, the 

 furniture and equipment — and shall continue to maintain 

 it as a Church school, subject only to the proviso that 

 a number of members of their body, not exceeding one- 

 third, shall be nominated by the local authority. 



It will be seen from a careful study of the Bill that 

 its dominant purpose, so far as regards elementary 

 education, js to encourage the multiplication of denomi- 

 national schools, to remove the " intolerable strain " of 

 maintaining them from the shoulders of the churches 

 to those of the ratepayers, to strengthen the denomi- 

 national system and to give it a renewed chance of 

 permanence. It may be that this great change in the 

 national policy will commend itself to the approval of the 

 English Parliament and people, but its meaning should 

 not be misunderstood. It was the prayer of the Greek 

 soldier, " Let me die in the light," and if, after all our 

 experience and the efibrts of statesmen to make our 

 system of public instruction more national and less 

 sectarian, we are really destined to see that system 

 impaired if not destroyed, we ought at least to have 

 our eyes open, and to see clearly what is the nature of 

 the present reactionary movement and whither it tends. 



J. G. P'lTctr. 



III. 



The two main causes for the relative poorness of 

 British technical education as compared with that 

 given in Gerinany and the LInited .States are, {a) the 

 fact that comparatively few British manufacturers have 

 as yet learned the need for the efficient technical training 

 of those whom they employ, and (/') the chaotic condi- 

 tion of the secondary, and part of the elementary, 

 education of this country. 



The Government Bill is a step towards the rectification 

 of the latter defect, for not only does it make possible 

 some organisation and improvement of secondary 

 education, but it also tends to secure greater efficiency 

 for the denominational elementary schools, many of 

 which are at present in a starved condition. 



Most of those connected with technical education will 

 be glad to see that the Government has chosen as its 

 educational authority a body on which, while the repre- 

 sentative element will rightly predominate, there will be 

 a minority of educational experts. Evening classes will 

 come under the control of this new authority, and it will 

 be possible to grade them properly and to secure that the 

 bulk of the money spent upon them is not frittered away 

 in simply giving many thousands a mere smattering of 



NO. 1694, VOL. 65] 



knowledge. At present this is the case to a considerable 

 extent, and one reason for it is the lack of proper 

 coordination between evening classes in Board Schools 

 and higher institutions ; such coordination would en- 

 courage a inuch greater number of the Board-School 

 pupils to continue their studies to a stage when these 

 studies might prove of real benefit, not only to the 

 pupils, but also to the nation. 



The Bill has two serious defects, both of which, how- 

 ever, can be easily remedied. In the first place there is 

 the optional clause, which leaves it to the various county 

 and borough councils to decide whether or not they will 

 make themselves responsible for the whole of the educa- 

 tion in their districts. If this stands it is certain to per- 

 petuate old difficulties and to give rise to a whole series 

 of new ones ; it is to be hoped, therefore, that the 

 Government will stiffen its back and leave no option in 

 regard to this important matter. 



Secondly, there is no clause in the Bill which appears 

 to safeguard the interests of technical education by 

 ensuring that the residue under the Local Taxation 

 (Customs and Excise) Act, nSgo, shall continue, as here- 

 tofore, to be devoted to the purposes of technical educa- 

 tion. It is of great importance that this should be 

 specifically enacted, as otherwise there will be a danger 

 that, in view of the increased demands upon the rate- 

 payers for improved elementary and secondary educa- 

 tion, the local authorities may curtail the sums they now 

 expend on technical education, though those sums are 

 still inadequate when compared with the sums spent by 

 our leading industrial competitors. 



Finally, it would be well to include in the Bill some pro- 

 vision, not only for the coordination of woi'k within the 

 district of each local authority, but also for the coordina- 

 tion by means of the central educational authority of the 

 work undertaken by the local authorities themselves. 

 This is particularly necessary in the matter of technical 

 education, for, if we are to have technical colleges which 

 will be comparable in efficiency with those of the United 

 States of America, we must gather large numbers of 

 students into a relatively limited number of centres, and 

 provide in each centre the best possible equipment and a 

 teaching staff on a scale much more generous than in 

 any example at present to be found in Great Britain. 

 Elementary technical education ought, of course, to be 

 given as far as possible in all parts of the country, but 

 the attempt of small towns to give the highest technical 

 education to few students should be discouraged. These 

 students should be drafted into centres, and the deter- 

 mination as to where these centres should be placed 

 should be left in the hands of the central educational 

 authority. Moreover, higher technical education being 

 a matter of more than local importance should be sub- 

 sidised, not only, or mainly, by local authorities, but very 

 largely by the .State itself One may hope for such in- 

 creased .State aid at present, but it seems scarcely justi- 

 fiable to expect it ; our statesmen have yet to learn that 

 expenditure on an army and a navy to keep the "open 

 door " for our commerce will not suffice to enable us to 

 meet foreign competition, unless we expend time and 

 money on tlie training of our industrial and commercial 

 leaders in the same liberal and enlightened manner as 

 is the case in the foremost foreign countries. 



J. WERTHEIMER. 



THE REGINA MARGHERITA OBSERVATORY. 

 "T^HE investigation of the physiological phenomena 

 ■'■ which present themselves when man ascends to 

 high altitudes is as fascinating as the results are, or 

 promise to be, important. The fascination and the 

 importance are connected with the complexity of the 

 problems which have to be dealt with. The effect on 

 respiration due to the diminished oxygen of the rarefied 



