Junk io, 1909 J 



NATURE 



447 



pupils. Attention was directed to the necessity of develop- 

 ing day courses of instruction in technical schools or poly- 

 technics, of which there should be one in each large town 

 or centre of population. These day courses should be of a 

 high standing, and should be restricted to students of at 

 least sixteen years of age. 



One possible reform of great urgency is the improvement 

 in the organisation, curricula, and methods of the evening 

 continuation school, which should link on with the even- 

 ing technical school. At present, evening continuation 

 schools, save in a few towns, are profoundly unsatisfactory. 

 It was suggested that the time is now ripe for the appoint- 

 ment of a Royal (or Departmental) Commission to deal 

 with the general question of the organisation and coordina- 

 tion of technical education and its relationship to primary 

 and secondary education. With respect to the Imperial 

 College of Technology, it was stated that if the desires 

 of its founders and the needs of the country arc to be 

 satisfied, this institution should not undertake work of a 

 diploma or degree standard, but it should restrict itself to 

 post-graduate work, technical research, and such branches 

 of higher technological teaching which are not provided 

 for at present. A danger facing technical education at the 

 present moment is the tendency in some quarters to close 

 the higher classes in pure science in technical institutions, 

 partly through motives of economy and partly through 

 efforts towards an illusory coordination with university 

 college work. 



Mr. \\"ilson then discussed the " culture " value of 

 technical education, maintaining that a broad scientific, 

 technical, or artistic training affords a highly valuable 

 mental discipline, and is truly educational in the strictest 

 sense of the term. The technical schools of this country 

 must be judged, not only by their purely economic results, 

 but by their gradual leavening effect upon the mental 

 inertia' and intellectual sluggishness of the nation. Pass- 

 •ng on to certain aspects of the work inside the institutions, 

 doubts were expressed as to the value of the elaborate 

 system of scientific and technical examinations now held 

 by the Board of Education and the City and Guilds Insti- 

 tute. In concluding, Mr. Wilson dealt with the subject 

 of " research " in technical institutions. .'\t present the 

 teaching staff of these institutions, although keenly 

 anxious to engage in research, partly for its own sake 

 and partly from motives of professional advancement, is 

 generally unable, save in isolated cases, to do so. The 

 stress of institution work, including, say, ten to fift;een 

 lectures per week, with another ten to fifteen hours' 

 laboratory work, to which is added departmental _ work, 

 correction of notes and exercises, and preparation of 

 lectures, is so great that " research " under the present 

 conditions is generally impossible. 



In the afternoon of May 31 a valuable paper was read 

 bv Mr. \. Galbraith CGIasgow and West of Scotland 

 Technical College) detailing the successful efforts recently 

 made in the Glasgow district to coordinate the work of 

 thirty-seven local evening continuation schools with that 

 of the Glasgow Technical College, resulting in approxi- 

 mately five hundred fully qualified evening students, who 

 have successfully passed through a preliminary scientific 

 two years' course in these schools, being annually passed 

 on to the technical college. In the evening the annual 

 dinner of the association was held, the chief guests being 

 the Lord Mayor and the Lady Mayoress of Liverpool, and 

 representatives of educational organisations and institu- 

 tions, as the National Union of Teachers, the Liverpool 

 University, and local education authorities. 



The morning session of June i, devoted to pro- 

 fessional matters such as the salary scale, conditions of 

 service of part-time teachers, superannuation scheme, and 

 legal matters, was opened by the Lord Mayor of Liver- 

 pool (the Right Hon. H. Chalenor Dowdall), who in the 

 afternoon gave a reception in the Town Hall to the 

 delegates and members of the association. At night a 

 public meeting was held, when addresses on various phases 

 of technical education were delivered by Mr. Max Muspratt 

 and other prominent local educationists. 



The following resolutions on general educational matters 

 were passed during the conference : — 



(i) The preliminary training which students receive at 

 present before entering technical institutions is not such 



NO. 2067, VOL. So] 



as to fit them for benefiting by tlie instruction provided. 

 To improve this, the following reforms are desirable : — 



(a) No child should be allowed to leave school before the 

 age of fifteen, and the half-time system should be 

 abolished. 



(&) In the education of children attending elementary 

 schools special attention should be paid to the teaching of 

 practical arithmetic, elementary science, and to manual 

 training. 



(2) Resolutions concerning the present evening continua- 

 tion scliools : — 



(a) The evening continuation schools should be affiliated 

 to the higher institutions in their respective districts. 



(b) The curricula of the evening continuation schools 

 should be arranged in conjunction with the authorities of 

 the higher institutions, who should have the right of entry 

 or inspection. 



(3) Admission to technical schools should, in general, 

 be conditional on the student having reached a standard 

 of education to be subsequently fixed. 



(4) (a) The work of the secondary schools should be 

 divided into three branches, viz. (i.) technical-secondary 

 schools (including trade schools) ; (ii.) commercial 

 secondary ; (iii.) classical-secondary. 



(h) There should be a properly graded system of scholar- 

 ships, with maintenance, available at these schools. 



(5) This association heartily approves of the general 

 principles embodied in the following recommendations of 

 the Minority Report of the Poor Law Commissioners :— 



It should be illegal to employ boys below the age_ of 

 fifteen or any youth below eighteen for more than thirty 

 hours per week, and boys should be compelled to attend 

 some suitable public institute giving physical and technical 

 training for not less than thirty hours per week at periods 

 to suit the convenience of employers in different industries. ■ 



The main points emphasised during the discussions at 

 the conference were the following : — 



(r) The pressing need for coordination of technical educa- 

 tion with primary and secondary education, especially the 

 linking on of the' technical school to the elementary school 

 through the evening continuation school. 



(2) The need foY the provision of technical-secondary 

 schools in which, while continuing the general education 

 of the pupils in English, a modern language, and science, 

 the curricula shall be such as to afford a suitable training 

 for those who at the end of their secondary-school period 

 will pass on direct to the day technical institution or enter 

 upon industrial or commercial work. 



(3) The necessity . for the development of higher ^ day 

 technological training, coupled with a generous provision 

 of scholarships with maintenance grants. 



ECONOMIC ZOOLOGY. 



THE black-currant mite {Eriophyes ribis) is a pest only 

 too well known to fruit-growers at the present time 

 a'nd also one which seems to be rapidly increasing and 

 spreading. Anything that will check its ravages is there- 

 fore of great importance, and it is satisfactory to learn 

 that two new parasites of this mite have been discovered 

 and their life-histories described by Miss A. M. Taylor in 

 the April issue of the Journal of Economic Biology. The 

 first of these is a minute fungus of the genus Botrvtis, 

 near akin to the one which attacks silkworms. This 

 fungus, which is deadly in its action on the mites, makes 

 its appearance when 'the currant-buds begin to swell 

 abnormally owing to the presence of the mites. Spores 

 of the fungus become blown on such mites as are exposed 

 by the bursting of the buds, and under suitable conditions 

 rapidly develop on their new hosts. Neighbouring mites 

 are speedily infected, and the disease spreads until the tiny 

 parasite has worked completely through the bud, destroy- 

 ing not only the mites and t'heir eggs, but the grub by 

 which they are accompanied. , . , ■> 



These grubs are the larvae of a minute fly of the family 

 Chalcidida;, and they, too, depend for their existence upon 

 the mites, although the number they consume is com- 

 paratively insignificant in comparison with the swarms 

 which exist in "big-bud." It is manifest, therefore, that 

 the hope of parasitic infection proving efficacious in the 

 case of the currant-mite must rest with the fungus. 



