400 Transactions. — Miscellaneous, 



so 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, 

 gamed 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 £130,000, has been expended upon it. 



