400 T'ransactions.— Miscellaneous. 
80 at a period when industrial invention is more prolific than it ever was 
before; when not only are fresh contrivances daily springing from the 
brains of skilful mechanics, but the remarkable discoveries which have been 
made by scientists during the last century are being utilized in all directions 
for industrial purposes; so that year by year a more and more refined and 
comprehensive knowledge and skill are demanded of the handicraftsman. 
The whole community, too, is vastly better educated than it was half-a- 
century ago, and in numerous trades an artistic style of workmanship is 
demanded, which requires from the artizan, if he wish to rank as a good 
workman, a knowledge of art which was formerly needless on his part. 
Moreover, and this I beg to urge most strenuously upon the notice of the 
Institute, our artizans will at no distant date be exposed to the competition 
of thousands of workmen trained in the technical schools and colleges of 
England and the Continent, where they will not only have learned the use 
of their tools and machinery from the best masters, but will also have been 
thoroughly grounded in the scientific principles of their respective trades, 
gained through a special education, in which everything necessary to their 
accurate comprehension of those trades has been included, and from which 
everything unnecessary has been carefully excluded, so that the student's 
energies have been focussed and concentrated upon the one object of be- 
coming a master of his craft. What chance will the average colonial youth, 
learning his trade in the loose fashion which I have already indicated, stand 
against such formidable competitors when he arrives at manhood? Not 
only will these rivals possess a precise knowledge of their trade, of which he 
is utterly destitute, but with the aid of their special education they will also 
be able to follow and adapt themselves to new inventions in a manner 
beyond his reach. 
I have just spoken of the Technical Schools and Colleges of England. 
The words may sound strange to the ears of old colonists, but recent 
arrivals from the mother country will be aware of how much has been done 
there in this direction of late years. Manufacturers and others concerned 
have vigorously exerted themselves to obtain for the British workman an 
opportunity of acquiring that technical education in matters relating to his 
daily employment which has hitherto been denied him, although it has been 
enjoyed to some extent by his Continental rivals. The practical outcome 
of the movement has been the establishment by the combined efforts of the 
Corporation of London and the City Guilds of an institution in London for 
the technical training of artizans called ** The City and Guilds of London 
Institute for the Advancement of Technical Education.” This was started 
in 1879, and already a very large sum of money, apparently some £120,000 
or £180,000, has been expended upon it. 
