6oo 
On Technical Education. 
[October, 
England and Wales the payments of the teachers varied 
from £i to £10, and in 21 of the schools the former sum 
only was obtained ; in 66 out of the 209 schools in Ireland 
the teachers’ payment varied from £1 to £10 ; and in 
46 out of the 151 schools in Scotland the teachers’ pay- 
ment varied from £2 to £10. It will be observed that the 
payment to the Science teachers in Scotland never descended 
to the munificent sum of £1. When the payment exceeded 
£1, but did not exceed £10, the miserable pittance had to be 
shared not unfrequently by two or more teachers ; I noticed 
in one case that fouv teachers had to share £y between them. 
Let us notice next the time a teacher must give, even to have 
a chance of obtaining a result payment of £1 ; he must, even 
to have a chance of gaining that small sum, give — at least 
so states the “ Science Directory ” — 28 lessons, and each 
lesson must last at least one hour for the theoretical courses 
and one hour and a half for the practical courses. “ It is 
not meant ” — so states the “ Directory ” — “ in any way to 
suggest that that amount of instruction is siifficient, or to 
guarantee the teacher’s receiving payment if that amount 
of instruction alone be given ” — a pretty plain hint that 
more than 28 lessons are necessary for even a chance of 
success, although it would appear that it was not considered, 
by the very well paid permanent officials, politic to state in 
exact words the time they thought necessary to be given, as 
it might have the effect of deterring many from becoming 
teachers under the system ; and it might also have the effect 
of drawing greater public attention to the vast difference 
between the precarious sums the teachers earn and the secure 
permanent salaries the officials, who exist upon their labours, 
are paid. 
In addition to the time that must be devoted to the 
teaching of the subject, the teacher of an Experimental 
Science will — if he illustrates at all, as he ought to do, his 
teaching by experiments — have to expend a not inconsider- 
able portion in their preparation : this will on an average 
amount to more than double the time he has to give to the 
actual teaching of the subject, and yet, after all the labour 
and time he may have bestowed, he is not sure under this 
system of any payment, however small, being awarded him ; 
but even if he does happen to have awarded him the muni- 
ficent sum of £1, we have learned from the letter of a 
Science teacher (p. 95) that he may not touch payment until 
thirteen months after he commenced his course of in- 
struction. 
Before proceeding further with the payment part of the 
