Magazine  of  the  School  of  Agriculture. 
35 
which  we  have  hitherto  considered  in  its  general 
and  foreign  aspect.  What  is  the  form  of  Tech- 
nical Education  which  will  but  suit  our  local 
requirements  having  due  regard  to  the  character 
of  the  people,  our  available  teaching  resources, 
and  our  industrial  needs  ? Notwithstanding  the 
careful  attention  1 have  given  this  subject  for 
a long  time,  I confess  I approach  it  with  con- 
siderable hesitation  and  diffidence.  1 am  aware 
that  my  views,  whatever  they  may  be,  will  fail 
to  give  satisfaction  to  some  one  or  other  section 
of  the  public  who  are  interested  in  the  solu- 
tion of  this  question.  I can  anticipate  the 
charges  which  local  critics  will  fulminate  against 
my  opinions,  howdver  carefully  matured,  as  those 
of  an  “ amateur  theorist,”  a “ visionary  doctri- 
naire,” a “ dilettante  educationalist  ” emerging 
from  his  study  with  a confused  solution  of  ideas 
picked  up  from  musty  books  to  blow  soap 
bubbles  with  for  his  own  gratification,  &c.,  &c. 
That  ancient  hackneyed  quotation  ne  sutor  ultra 
crepidam  will  once  again  be  furbished  up  on  my 
account,  and  I shall  be  advised  to  stick  to 
my  proper  sphere  and  not  meddle  with  mat- 
ters beyond  my  ken.  Before  a problem  of  such 
magnitude,  in  the  solution  of  which  even  our 
local  authorities  thoroughly  acquainted  with 
our  educational  needs,  and  practical  men  like 
Messrs.  Mitchell,  Wall,  &c.  quite  conversant  with 
the  subject  in  all  its  aspects,  are  slow  to  take 
the  initiative,  prudence  and  discretion  at  least 
should  counsel  either  a judicious  silence  or 
at  most  a noucommital  policy.  But  it  has  been 
my  misfortune  all  my  life  long  not  to  listen  to 
the  dictates  of  prudence  or  discretion  where  a 
sense  of  duty,  (however  mistaken),  has  urged 
me  to  independent  action.  1 have  never  for- 
gotten a piece  of  advice  I came  across  in  my 
student  life  given  by  Sir  Astley  Cooper  to  a 
medical  student:  “Look  for  yourself.  Never 
mind  what  other  people  may  say.  No  opinion 
or  theories  can  interfere  with  information  ac- 
quired from  actual  observation,”  and  I have 
always  tried  to  act  up  to  it. 
That  the  problem  of  Technical  Education  in 
reference  to  our  local  needs  is  a complicated  and 
difficult  one  admits  of  no  question.  Even  in 
Europe  where  this  system  of  education  has 
been  on  its  trial  for  fully  half  a century,  where 
all  possible  conditions  for  successful  experimen- 
tation exist— unlimited  national  resources,  and 
liberal  State  support,  and  munificent  private  bene- 
factions, and  teaching  agencies  and  instruments 
innumerable,  and  the  right  class  of  teachers  to 
teach  pupils  who  appreciate  the  dignity  of  labor, 
and  are  not  ashamed  to  handle  the  spade  or 
the  plough  whatever  their  social  position— there 
is  hardly  a single  system  of  technical  instruc- 
tion which  has  received  unqualified  approval 
from  all  authorities,  while  there  are  numerous 
educational  questions  of  the  highest  importance 
in  which  they  are  constantly  found  to  disagree. 
How  much  more  difficult  must  this  problem  be 
in  an  infant  colony  where  technical  teaching 
is  to  be  introduced  as  an  experiment  for  the 
first  time,  not  in  response  to  an  urgent  demand 
from  the  people,  but  in  the  interests  of  a 
policy,  wise  and  far  seeing  it  may  be,  (I  do  not 
say  it  is  not,)  which  endeavours  to  forecast  the 
future  needs  of  the  community  rather  than  to 
meet  its  immediate  pressing  requirements, 
where  the  people  themselves  of  feeble  physique, 
conservative  in  their  habits  and  ways  of  think- 
ing, despising  physical  labour,  swayed  by 
caste  prejudices,  and  influenced  by  false  ideas 
of  gentility  which  the  tendency  of  the  present 
system  of  education  only  tends  to  foster, 
where  the  resources  available  for  experiment 
with  any  new  system  of  education  as  regards 
funds,  teachers,  appliances  &c.  are  necessarily 
limited,  and  where  few  of  the  conditions  exist 
which  urgently  demand  a technical  training,  or 
which  could  provide  suitable  employment  for 
those  willing  to  undergo  such  training  ! Every- 
where else  educational  progress  has  followed  in 
the  wake  of  social  and  industrial  changes,  but 
reacting  in  its  turn  and  leading  to  further  social 
improvements  ultimately,  but  here  in  Ceylon 
we  are  for  ever  borrowing  western  ideas  and 
western  instructions,  admirable  enough  perhaps 
among  a highly-civilized  people  trained  to  political 
freedom  and  habits  of  independence  and  self-re- 
liance, and  foisting  them  on  to  a country  and  a 
people  existing  under  totally  different  conditions 
without  even  a thought  or  a question  as  to  their 
fitness  or  unfitness  to  the  people  on  whom  the 
experiment  is  to  be  tried.  True  educational 
progress  is  growth  and  development  from  a living 
stock — not  that  artificial  caricature  which  results 
from  the  transplanation  and  forcible  introduction 
of  a branch  from  an  exotic  plant.  Any  edu- 
cational reform,  it  has  been  well  remarked,  which 
does  not  fit  into  and  grow  out  of  an  existing 
system  is  not  a practicable  or  even  a desirable 
reform.  I admit  however  that  in  a country  like 
ours,  where  all  the  thinking  for  the  people  is 
done  not  by  the  people  themselves  but  by  the 
constituted  authorities,  it  is  not  the  present 
requirements  only  but  the  future  needs  of  the 
country  which  the  Government  have  to  provide 
for.  I would  go  further  and  even  contend  for 
the  Socialistic  view  that  it  is  the  duty  of  the 
State  to  provide  for  a man’s  needs  while  he  him- 
self provides  for  his  wants,  the  distinction  being 
between  wants  as  necessities  which  a man  re- 
cognises for  himself,  as  food  and  clothing,  and 
needs  necessities  not  recognised  by  the  indivi- 
dual, but  which  in  the  interests  of  the  community 
are  necessary  to  his  life,  such  as  education.  &c. 
And  certainly  as  regards  any  special  kind  of 
education,  if  it  be  urgently  needed,  if  there  be 
a great  and  earnest  cry  for  it,  the  people  them- 
selves in  a colony  like  ours  cannot  in  the  present 
state  of  things  be  expected  to  provide  that 
education  for  themselves,  it  would  even  be  the 
duty  of  the  Government  to  foresee  and  pro- 
vide for  such  education  against  a demand  for 
it  which  is  likely  to  arise  in  the  near  future. 
But  it  would  be  of  no  use  to  devote  time  and 
money  to  provide  schools  and  classes  for  pupils 
who  w hen  trained  may  find  their  education  of 
no  earthly  use  to  them,  no  market  for  their 
special  wares,  no  employment  to  provide  them 
with  means  of  livelihood.  Nor  would  it  be  of 
any  use  to  embark  in  any  expensive  school  of 
education  which  is  unsuited  to  the  character  or 
the  habits  of  the  people,  which  they  have  no 
willingness  to  receive,  or  which  they  may  even 
obstinately  reject. 
So  that  the  first  question  to  be  considered  in 
studying  such  a problem  as  this  is  what  is 
