1883.1 
On Technical Education . 
595 
up for examination, it is desirable to impress again upon the 
reader that the teacher is only paid for instructing those who 
pass ; he is not paid by the State anything whatever for 
those who do not come up for examination, or for those who 
do not pass, and therefore I think everyone will agree with 
me that the Department has no right — as we shall see fur- 
ther on they do — to take credit for those they do not pay the 
teacher for instructing ; they do this apparently for the sake 
of making the expenditure appear less than it really is, by 
counting those they do not pay the teacher for instructing 
as well as those they do pay for. 
The number who came up for examination amounted to 
38,837; in addition 5804 self-taught students, and pupils 
in classes not entitled to claim payment on results, presented 
themselves for examination : out of the total 44,641 indivi- 
duals who presented themselves, 30,518 passed. The Report 
gives no information, as far as I can discover, as to how many 
of the 5804 passed on whom payment on results could not 
be claimed. 
We have arrived, then, at the number of individuals under 
instruction, the number who came up for examination, and 
the number who passed ; and now what we would desire to 
know is how they passed, but on this essential point for testing 
the efficiency and benefits of the instruction the Report fails 
in giving the necessary information ; it is vague and myste- 
rious on this most important point. We are told, in the 
table on page 55 of the Report, that “ the number who 
came up in the Elementary Stage alone amounted to 57,614, 
and yet we had been previously informed that only 44,641 
presented themselves in all the different stages. We have 
to go back to page 53 of the Report to find out what the 
Department means by the number who came up ; it means 
“ the total number of papers worked.” It was new to me to 
learn, as I think it will be to alkmy readers, that a. paper can 
can come up for examination, and can pass or fail. As 
there are twenty-four subjects examined upon, and as a 
student may, and very frequently does, go in for more than 
one subject, the number of papers worked gives no informa- 
tion as to the number of students who came up in the dif- 
ferent stages, and their successes ; however, I can only give 
it as I find it in the Report : the reader has consequently to 
remember that the expression “ the number who came up ” 
in the different stages means the number of papers worked, 
and not the number of individual students; — - 
