1883.] 
On Technical Education . 
159 
steadily in view from the very first. But of all our unor- 
ganised, aimless, objectless systems, the Science one under 
the Department of Science and Art appears to me to be the 
worst. A gentleman to teach under the Department must 
have obtained the Department’s qualification to teach ; but 
when he has obtained it, as he receives no payment from the 
Department except by results, he can start classes, and 
teach the pupils what sciences he pleases without regard to 
any plan or unity : he will teach those subjects only which 
will pay him the best in the place in which he establishes a 
class. He may teach, for instance, one year a class in ele- 
mentary chemistry ; next year he may teach, in the same 
place, if he thinks it will pay him better, elementary botany ; 
in the third year, elementary geology; and so he may go on 
through the whole circle of the sciences, if he thinks he can 
get a sufficient number of students to attend in the different 
subjects. His sole aim will be to get as much money as he 
can on the result system, and he knows that to attain this 
he must in many places vary his subject from time to time : 
he further knows that as a rule he can obtain the most 
money by preparing his students for examination in the ele- 
mentary stage of the subject only; in the majority of cases 
it will not pay nearly so well to go higher than the lowest 
stage. The taught will thus only acquire a smattering of 
the rudiments of one or more of the sciences, which will not 
prove a source of pleasure or profit to the majority of them, 
and such a system of science teaching can never be of any 
advantage to the nation industrially ; and we can only 
expeCt to maintain for our manufactures a foremost position 
in the markets of the world, in the present day, by at least 
our middle class obtaining on an ascending scale of instruc- 
tion in Science, as is done in Germany, a high class scien- 
tific education. 
We shall bring under review, as we proceed, the number 
of students attending the elementary science classes under 
the Department of Science and Art, the number that pass, 
and the cost to the State of these classes : it will then be 
apparent that only a very small percentage of the students 
attending these classes go in for the higher examinations ; 
but for the purpose of more forcibly illustrating what is 
about to be stated with regard to the defects of the system of 
teaching which has to be adopted by the teachers of these 
classes, I will here give the number of examination papers 
issued, and the number of successes, at the May examina- 
tion in 1881. 1 give the number of papers instead of the 
number of individual students, because it is difficult, if not 
