THE STRUGGLE FOR EXISTENCE 109 



be local. Our industrial population accumulates in par- 

 ticular towns and districts; these districts are those 

 which immediately profit by technical education; and it 

 is only in them that we can find the men practically en- 

 gaged in industries, among whom some may reasonably 

 be expected to be competent judges of that which is 

 wanted, and of the best means of meeting the want. 



In my belief, all methods of technical training are 

 at present tentative, and, to be successful, each must be 

 adapted to the special peculiarities of its locality. This 

 is a case in which we want twenty years, not of "strong 

 government," but of cheerful and hopeful blundering; 

 and we may be thankful if we get things straight in 

 that time. 



The principle of the Bill introduced, but dropped, by 

 the Government last session, appears to me to be wise, 

 and some of the objections to it I think are due to a 

 misunderstanding. The Bill proposed in substance to 

 allow localities to tax themselves for purposes of techni- 

 cal education on the condition that any scheme for 

 such purpose should be submitted to the Science and Art 

 Department, and declared by that department to be in 

 accordance with the intention of the Legislature. 



A cry was raised that the Bill proposed to throw 

 technical education into the hands of the Science and 

 Art Department. But, in reality, no power of initiation, 

 nor even of meddling with details, was given to that 

 Department the sole function of which was to decide 

 whether any plan proposed did or did not come within 

 the limits of "technical education." The necessity for 

 such control, somewhere, is obvious. No legislature, 

 certainly not ours, is likely to grant the power of self- 

 taxation without setting limits to that power in some 

 way; and it would neither have been practicable to de- 

 vise a legal definition of technical education, nor com- 



