94 
On Technical Education . 
[February, 
a gentleman started, and taught, a chemical class in the 
Mechanics’ Institution in this place. The examination was 
duly held; but when the teacher sought for payment he was 
informed that owing to some informality the Secretary of the 
Local Committee had committed — of which he, the teacher, 
was up to that time totally ignorant — no payment could 
be given to him, nor prizes awarded to the students. 
When Physical Geography was one of the subjects in the 
Departments course, a gentleman, who afterwards related 
the particulars to me, started a class in the subject, and gave 
about a hundred lessons. The class knew their subject tho- 
roughly ; and a few days before the official examination he, 
the teacher, held an examination, and out of twenty ques- 
tions he gave eight of them comprised the examination paper 
of the Department’s examiner, but the pupils were awarded 
no marks at the Department’s examination ; the teacher 
therefore received no payment, and he consequently gave up 
teaching the subject. Owing to local peculiarities the pupils’ 
vocabulary of English words was somewhat limited, and 
therefore they all expressed themselves very much alike ; 
and as they were acquainted with the answers to the eight 
questions the Department’s examiner gave, the teacher con- 
cluded that the Departmental authorities believed that the 
pupils had been made acquainted with their examiner’s paper 
before going into the examination room. This was after- 
wards apparently confirmed in the following manner : — Some 
time afterwards the same gentleman taught, in the same 
place, a class in Geology. “ The answers ” — I give the 
gentleman’s own words — “ were so good that the Depart- 
ment would not credit my ciass for having written them, 
and an Inspector was sent who boldly accused us of unfair 
dealing. The candidates were asked to write the answers 
again, which they did, though it was some six or seven 
weeks after the examination. I told the Inspector I would 
find no difficuly in ‘ spotting ’ their questions ; I showed him 
a few papers of questions in my note-book which would 
ensure answers to their questions : they allowed some on the 
second occasion to pass. The Local Committee complained 
of the unfairness of suspedting the work done by the pupils 
simply because their expressions were alike, if not identical.” 
This resulted in this gentleman abandoning the teaching of 
that subjedt also. 
When payment has been awarded there is frequently great 
delay in paying the grant. On January 23rd, 1882, there 
appeared in the “ Standard ” newspaper a communication 
from “ A School Manager ” respedting the delay in the 
