220 
On Technical Education. 
[April, 
within the power of the permanent officials, according to 
their Minutes, — Minutes which, according to Mr. Mundella, 
are rather puzzling , — to award no pay whatever to the 
teacher after he has given his course of instruction ; but if 
he is awarded pay it may, as we have seen, be so scanty that 
it may not amount to 2 \cl. per hour during the time he is 
occupied. 1 he cost of the administration of the Science 
and Art Department — the Staff establishment — has in the 
meantime gone on increasing at a rapid rate, including the 
secure and permanent salaries of the officials ; and new 
posts, to which handsome salaries are attached, continue to 
multiply. Is there not a cause, then, why competent teachers 
should not place themselves in such a humiliating and pre- 
carious position ? Private employers could not obtain com- 
petent persons on any such terms ; neither as a rule can the 
State obtain them. 
But competent teachers are not able to teach efficiently 
under the system, for if they did they would earn little or 
no pay : “ Science 1 eacher,” in his letter which appeared in 
the last number of this Journal, states that faCt, and Science 
teacheis I have met with have stated the same thing to me. 
One of the Department’s own Inspectors, in speaking to me 
some time ago on the subject, informed me that the most 
successful of the Irish Science schools he inspected — the 
most successful in the way of obtaining medals, prizes, &c. 
the pupils were prepared by repeating answers every 
school-day to a certain number of the questions the Pro- 
fessional Examiners had given in previous examinations : in 
the course of the conversation he observed that it would be 
much better, instead of expending public money on the 
teaching of subjects which never could be of any use to the 
learner, owing to the way the subjects were taught, if the 
money was expended in teaching the young people some 
handicraft which would be not only of benefit to themselves 
but also to the country. 
I have noticed these evils as they form part of the system ; 
they must theiefore, in a greater or less degree, pervade the 
system when carried out by the City Guilds. 
The limitation of Science instruction, on the part of the 
Department and the Guilds, to the artizan class chiefly, is 
limiting it to the class which can least benefit by such in- 
stiuCtion. Mr. Mundella, on being asked questions by the 
late Loid Frederick Cavendish, showed by his answers that 
he had no doubt as to the class to be taught if the nation 
was to^ derive any benefit from the instruction given. 
4664 : “ Do you think it is necessary, in order to enable us 
