Technical Education. 61 



having referred to the want of prizes or rewards of some kind in 

 connection with our National schools, said the children of Model 

 schools obtain certificates and prizes as the result of annual 

 examinations, and there seems to be no reason why a similar 

 system should not be insisted upon in every ordinary National 

 school as a means to stimulate efforts to excel and to deserve, and 

 in acknowledgment of superior merit. At present our National 

 or elementary schools have no direct connection with the Interme- 

 diate or higher schools. There is a missing link in our educative 

 chain which should be supplied by a system of scholarships open 

 to pupils of our National schools, thus connecting the elementary 

 schools with the intermediate and higher schools, and making 

 the way clear for worthy pupils to pass from the lower forms of 

 our provincial schools into the highest places in our educational 

 system. Our Schools of Art and Science established in 1851 

 constitute effective agencies for promoting technical education. 

 During the ten years that succeeded the Great Exhibition of 1 851 

 the art schools worked quietly and effectively, and their influence 

 on the industrial progress of the country was acknowledged 

 by foreign juries in the Exhibition of 1862, who stated that 

 England had "made amazing progress." Since then, further 

 improvement has been made, and the resources of the central 

 schools and museum at South Kensington have been greatly 

 extended, with correspondingly increased advantages to the 

 provinces. The number of national scholarships taken by any 

 school may be accepted as a very fair indication of the 

 efficiency of the school. In this respect Belfast has done 

 well, and occupies a high position in comparison with many 

 others in the kingdom. During the fourteen years following 

 the establishment of our local School of Art, Belfast has 

 taken the third place among the schools of the kingdom. 

 Within that period the number of scholarships taken by South 

 Kensington was 16, Birmingham 10, Belfast 8, and no other 

 school took more than 6. The science classes at the Working 

 Men's Institute, under Mr. Barklie, have been equally success- 

 ful, and last year the result fees, independent of prizes, amounted 

 to ^"600. In common with the manufacturers of the nation 



