1884.] 
On Technical Education. 
219 
van of all industrial nations. All were of opinion that it is 
of incalculable importance economically that our manufac- 
turers and managers should be thoroughly instructed in the 
principles of their arts. 
They were convinced that a knowledge of the principles 
of Science on the part of those who occupy the higher in- 
dustrial ranks, and the possession of elementary instruction 
by those who hold subordinate positions, would tend to pro- 
mote industrial progress by stimulating improvement, pre- 
venting costly and unphilosophic attempts at impossible 
inventions, diminishing waste, and obviating in a great 
measure ignorant opposition to salutary changes. 
On the payment part of the question the Committee ob- 
served — “ The remuneration of the teachers, arising from 
pupils’ fees and payment on results by the Department of 
Science and Art, is, with few exceptions, so scanty that 
Science teaching is scarcely ever followed as a profession, 
but only as an addition to some more profitable employment. 
Hence classes are frequently suspended whenever the more 
important occupations of the teacher demand increased at- 
tention, or cause him to remove to other localities. As the 
demand for instruction increases the incomes of the teacher 
will doubtless increase likewise, but the want of competent 
men will still remain.” 
It is not from want of competent men, nor has it ever 
been so, that we have not had good scientific instruction 
given in the Science classes under the Department of Science 
and Art ; it is, and has been, due to other causes. We will 
briefly enumerate a few: uncertainty as to what will be 
awarded for the labour and time given ; uncertainty in the 
date of payment, when an award has been made ; uncer- 
tainty in the duration of the employment, for under the 
system the teachers are entirely in the hands of the perma- 
nent officials at South Kensington : there is no appeal from 
their decision, however unjust, and those decisions may be 
made by some subordinate clerk in the Department. The 
result system, in faCt, makes the teachers the servants of 
the permanent officers of the Department, and not the ser- 
vants of the State. In the Department’s Annual Reports it 
is always prominently put forward that Science schools con- 
tinue to multiply, and that there is a continued increase in 
the number of pupils ; therefore in this sense Science in- 
struction has increased since the Committee reported, but, 
instead of the incomes of the teachers increasing, as the 
Committee expected, their average payment has decreased 
since that time by more than 38 per cent. Again, it is 
Q a 
