Position of Belfast in Relation to Technical Instruction. 47 



personal application to induce our City Council to follow the 

 lead of the chief cities and towns of the kingdom, up to the 

 present the County Borough Council of the city only 

 granted from the rates the sum of X^^o P^r annum, 

 which is distributed in an arbitrary way between our 

 four industrial schools, that for many years have been 

 hampered by straightened financial difficulties, to the 

 serious disadvantage of the technical educational prospects of 

 the city. jMr. Gray referred very fully to the effect of the Cus- 

 toms and Excise Act of 1890, under which large sums are ren- 

 dered available for technical instruction in England, Wales, and 

 Scotland, and the establishment of the City and Guilds of 

 London Institute, which in 1878 founded a central and other 

 colleges in London, in which technical instruction was carried on 

 to an advanced stage. Mr. Gray clearly pointed out how Ireland 

 was handicapped by having no advantage under the Customs and 

 Excise Act for the promotion of Technical Instruction, and that 

 owing to the apathy ot our City Council, the Technical 

 Instruction Act of 1889 was not put into operation. 



Mr. Gray said that, amid the chaos and confusion that 

 prevailed in the political atmosphere of Ireland in 1895, a far- 

 seeing intellect perceived and followed up an opening that gave 

 some prospect of securing a substantial advantage for Ireland in 

 favour of the agricultural and industrial classes of the country. 

 The steps taken in the formation of the Recess Committee by 

 the Right Hon. Horace Plunkett, M.P., and the important 

 report of the Committee's labours laid before the Chief Secretary 

 in August, 189b, was the origin of the Agriculture Act intro- 

 duced into Parliament in 1897. Fortunately this as then 

 drafted was not passed, owing to pressure of other business, but 

 it was reintroduced in an amended and much-improved form, and 

 and, without any help fromtheBelfastmunicipal authorities, was 

 passed into law last year under the title of " The Agriculture 

 and Technical Instruction Act." Under the provisions of 

 this most welcome Act Belfast and other county boroughs 

 in Ireland will be enabled to readjust the local arrangements 



