56 



NATURE 



[November ii, 1909 



energy expended in their capture, not because any note- 

 worthy 'change has occurred in their numbers. 



To. sum up the international worlj, then, it would seem 

 that considerable waste of energy and funds is caused by 

 the re-publication of papers, and by the manner in which 

 several of these overlap. Moreover, it is beyond the scope 

 of science to enter into a disquisition on the fluctuations 

 of the market-price of fishes. It is also noteworthy to 

 find that, after seven years' work, the council now see 

 the magnitude of their task and the absence of finality in 

 their labours. There is no sign of "impoverishment"; 

 on the contrary, their cautious words lean to the opposite 

 view. The committee recommend continuation of their 

 labours, basing this on the fact that various nations share 

 in the North Sea fishing, and that no action could be 

 taken without the consent of the other countries ; but as 

 to any important result to be gained by the fisheries there 

 IS silence, for it cannot be supposed that hydrography, the 

 collection of fish-food and bottom deposits, can do duty any 

 longer as necessary measures for the welfare of the North 

 Sea fisheries. W. C. M. 



THE ASSOCIATION OF TEACHERS IN 

 TECHNICAL INSTITUTIONS. 

 AT the fifth annual meeting of the Association of 

 Teachers in Technical Institutions, held on Saturday 

 November 6, Mr. J. Wilson, of the Hattersea Polytechnic^ 

 president of the association, in moving the adoption of the 

 annual report, reviewed the year's work. In the course 

 of it he laid special stress upon the very important step 

 taken by the association, at its conference at Liverpool, 

 in putting forward a definite series of resolutions relating 

 to educational reforms which appear to them as teachers 

 to be essential to the continued progress of technical educa- 

 tion. In these resolutions the association e.\presses its 

 opinion that it is necessary to raise the school-leaving age 

 to fifteen years ; it asks that special attention be given to 

 the teaching, in primary schools, of elementary science 

 practical arithmetic, and manual training ; it calls for 

 complete coordination of the work of the evening continua- 

 tion .schools with that of the evening technical schools ; 

 It a.sks for the provision of technical-secondary schools in- 

 cliiding trade schools, with a generous system of scholar- 

 ships, including allowance for maintenance ; and, finally, 

 It endorses the recommendations of the Minority Report of 

 the Poor Law Commissioners respecting compulsory attend- 

 ance of boys for technical instruction for not less than 

 thirty hours per week. Thus a very definite policy in some 

 important educational problems affecting technical educa- 

 tion has been taken up by this association. 



Another important, and in this case non-controversial 

 action is now being broached by this body of teachers 

 It suggests the desirability of holding a series of " round 

 table ' conferences between accredited representatives ol 

 primary, secondary, and technical teachers, with the object 

 of discussing the possibility of reforms in the curricula 

 and methods of work in the schools, from the point of 

 view of the needs of the pupils who at a later stage pass 

 on to the technical schools. Most urgent is the necessity 

 for such conferences in the case of the primary and 

 technical tc-achcrs, in order that tliev niav arrive at a 

 mutual understanding of the needs of the pupils and the 

 possibility of meeting them, because in the majority of 

 cases where pupils receive any formal teaching after the 

 primary-school work, it is to the technical teachers that 

 they come for it. Such conferences abound with immense 

 possibilities for the benefit of education in all its phases. 

 Broader and more complete knowledge of each other's 

 branch of work and its needs and possibilities must neces- 

 sarily result, and as a consequence many apparent difficul- 

 ties in the way of making the educational work in the 

 two or three types of .school trulv continuous, without un- 

 necessary overlapping, will be removed. The better know- 

 ledge of each other's work will remove some prejudices 

 and bring about the necessary unanimitv of action in those 

 matters which affect the teachers individually and as a 

 class, such as conditions of service, security of tenure 

 and superannuation for all classes of teachers'; these views 

 being held by the association, it is all but unnecessary to 

 NO. 2089, VOL. 82] 



point out to any other class of teachers, who have the duty, 

 responsibility, and honour of teaching the pupils in their 

 earlier years, that criticisms made by this association on 

 the preparation of those pupils for later technical studies 

 is not 'directed at the teachers, but at the systems imposed 

 upon them, in which ideas, good in themselves, are allowed 

 such sway as to mask the greater essentials of elementary- 

 school work. 



In 1888 Parliament passed a Technical Education Act, 

 and for the past twenty-one years progress has been 

 vigorous and rapid. Nevertheless, technical education has 

 touched only a very small fraction of the enormous mass 

 of material represented by the workers of all grades in 

 the industries of the country. We can only regard it as 

 having entered upon its duties, and must look forward to 

 dealing with much larger numbers of students and to a 

 greater range of work. There are two chief factors which 

 may assist in bringing in much larger numbers of the 

 young workers. The first of these is the increasing 

 interest and help of the employers. Efforts in this field 

 have so far produced but scanty results, and the associa- 

 tion as a body is not very hopeful of this field. The second 

 factor, to which the association looks with greater hope, 

 is some form of organised effort by the State to achieve 

 the following ends : — 



(a) Elementary education to be made more real and prac- 

 tical ; less "bookish," without diminishing its cultural 

 value. 



(6) The establishment of some system of compulsory 

 attendance for continued education for all between the 

 ages of fourteen and seventeen years. 



(c) The linking together of the three main grades of 

 educational effort. 



(d) The complete coordination of the work of the even- 

 ing continuation schools with that of the evening technical 

 schools. 



It is agreed by many observers, within and without our 

 technical institutions, that technical education is rapidly 

 approaching a crisis in so far as its higher work is con- 

 cerned in the London polytechnics. The special feature of 

 the moment is the relation of technical institutions to the 

 university colleges. The association holds the opinion that 

 there is room and to spare for the activities of both in 

 those phases of their work which are common, and fully 

 recognises that each has its own special function. It 

 claims that the opportunity for complete study should be 

 within the reach of every capable student, and that, too, In 

 a sympathetic atmosphere. There is visible at the present 

 time, both in London and the provinces, a tendency, under 

 the guise of coordination, to curtail this higher work in 

 both science and technology in these technical institutions, 

 and thus to reduce seriously the students' opportunity. 

 This tendency, if carried into effect, would be disastrous, 

 under present social conditions, to the highest interests of 

 national education, especially as regards the evening 

 students. H. Ade Clark. 



AN ORNITHOLOGIST ■ IN QUEENSLAND. 

 TN June last the editors of the Emu issued a special 

 number (vol. viii., part v.) containing a very interest- 

 ing account, by Mr. S. W. Jackson, of a trip to northern 

 Queensland in search of the nest and eggs of the tooth- 

 billed bower-bird" (Sccnopaestes dentirostris). The expedi- 

 tion was undertaken on behalf of Mr. H. L. White, and 

 appears, in spite of many difficulties, to have been 

 eminently successful in the attainment of its object. The 

 exploration of the tropical forests of Australia is by no 

 means devoid of danger. Mr. Jackson himself was laid 

 up for a week with "Johnstone River fever," which he 

 regards as the almost inevitable price of his wanderings 

 in the moist, fever-stricken scrubs, -and one of his 'natives 

 was killed by the falling branch of a tree, while the 

 "scrub-itch mites" appear to constitute a plague of no 

 mean order. It was a long time before he succeeded in 

 obtaining the nests and eggs of the tooth-bill, though the 

 playlng-grounds were met with in great abundance. 



A detailed, though unfortunately somewhat disconnected, 

 account Is given of the habits of these truly remarkable 

 birds. ■ They were first • observed shortly before the com- 

 mencement of the breeding season, each one occupying his 

 NO. 208g, VOL. 82] 



