476 REPORT— 1903. 



introduce a subject from a pure desire to improve the mind and better 

 the quality of the education you cannot get them to do well. In my 

 school you can divide the boys into two distinct classes — those who pay 

 fees and those who come with scholarships from the elementary or other 

 schools. The dividing-line is very distinct. When we present them for 

 examinations, the boys who come from the schools do us credit, and those 

 who do not are for the most part the sons of parents who pay fees. There 

 is in the minds of the lower middle-class people the belief that educa- 

 tion ought to lead to success in life, and that only such subjects should 

 be taken as will fit them to take a useful place in business. One of the 

 heads of an important railway company came to me some time ago, and 

 asked what education I would give his boy. When I told him, he said 

 scientific subjects were useless ; what he wanted was typewriting, short- 

 hand, bookkeeping, and commercial correspondence. Thus we have the 

 example of a man in a high position who at once cuts the ground from 

 under your feet by saying, ' Dwarf down my boy, and only fit him for 

 taking a place in my office and working his way to a position under me.' 

 If there are many in the country like that we have not much chance of 

 giving a scientific education. Anotlier difficulty is in regard to the 

 co-optive member for secondary schools. Judging from the action of the 

 committee to which I have been co-opted, I think they intend me to be 

 a sleeping partner, but I need hardly say that that is not my intention. 

 I think it is a great mistake in the Education Bill that the care of scientific 

 education is committed to town councils. It is a mistake to suppose that 

 German secondary education is so much better than that given in England. 

 I have a friend in Bavaria who was recently sent by the Bavarian 

 Government to inspect our science schools. He lived with my brother in 

 Dublin for some time, and then with me in Yorkshire, and he has this 

 year been lecturing in Vienna and elsewhere on scientific education, with 

 pictures of lal>oratories of English schools. He has had views taken of 

 the Leeds Higher Grade School, my own, and those he saw in London. 

 All these, he says, are in advance of those in Germany, so that we need 

 not be dismayed. We should endeavour to get pressui-e from the 

 Legislature on the county councils and the town councils, and thus 

 make provision for secondary and technical education. The Societies 

 we represent have been much to blame in not developing a liking for 

 science among the young. You have thousands of specimens in your 

 museums which you can put befoi'e your children. You have able men 

 who can lecture to them in the halls of your museums on its botanical, 

 geological, or other features. There has been an excellent use made of 

 the Leeds Museum by its librarian, Mr. Crowther, and myself, and if you 

 have not read any accounts of the work before, I advise you to put 

 yourself into communication with someone in Leeds, and see what is being 

 done there. 



The Chairman : I am glad to hear that the polytechnics are doing 

 such good work. The remark that we have not developed science 

 among the young is true generally, but it is not true in every case. At 

 Croydon we have started a junior class of members, and hope it will work 

 well. The young members pass into the society when they attain 

 a certain age ; they become full members without any process of election, 

 merely by doubling their subscriptions. That is a point societies may 

 take up in getting hold of the young. If you can offer prizes for collec- 

 tions of photographs or natural objects you will do wejl. Or} the ^vjiolp 



