44 



6th March^ igoo. 



Mr. Thomas Wofkman, J.P., President, in the Chair. 



THE POSITION OF BELFAST IN RELATION TO 

 TECHNICAL INSTRUCTION UNDER THE 

 AGRICULTURE AND TECHNICAL 

 INSTRUCTION ACT." 



By William Gray, M.R.I.A. 



Mr. Gray said that the time had arrived when it became 

 necessary to readjust our arrangements for imparting technical 

 instruction in Belfast, and that he proposed to discuss the 

 merits of that portion of the Agriculture and Technical Instruc- 

 tion Act of last Session that applied more particularly to 

 technical instruction in County Boroughs. He would briefly 

 indicate the lines along which our present system of industrial 

 education has been developed. In the middle of last century 

 the first institutions were founded in England, Scotland, and 

 Ireland for the promotion of technical instruction, or for the 

 practical application of Art and Science to industries. Mr. 

 Gray related the history of the first agencies founded in Great 

 Britain and Ireland for the practical application of Art and 

 Science to industries. The Board of Trustees in Scotland, 

 founded in 1727, the Dublin Society, incorporated by Royal 

 Charter in 1749, and the Society of Arts, London, founded in 

 1754. He referred particularly to the original School of Design 

 established in London in 1837, and its result, the founding of 

 what we now know as *' The Department of Science and Art." 

 In Ireland the Dublin Society originated the Botanic Gardens, 

 the Industrial Museum, School of Art and Library, which 



