TECHNICAL EDUCATION. 
that a boy from a class in one State in a certain school should be able 
to transfer to a similar class in any other school in any of the other 
States. Teachers should be highly-paid men—highly trained, but not 
only trained in science, but in the science of teaching, ‘and no man, 
however high his scientific attainments are, should be allowed to teach 
in any school, or direct such a school, without having first properly 
qualified in the science of teaching. 
A man may be an eminent doctor or scientist, or clergyman, but 
may be utterly out of place as a teacher, and a lady may be a most 
deserving widow in reduced circumstancces, without ‘being a qualified 
teacher. Tcaching makes or breaks a child’s future, and it is a crime 
to intrust this to unskilled persons. This applies only to schools, not 
to Universities. 
During my work I have come into contact with many scientifically 
trained men from various countries, and have had many such men of 
various nationalities working with me. I have no hesitation in saying 
that, generally, the British and Australians had the poorest scientific 
equipment of any of them. But I must qualify this remark by another. 
Notwithstanding his poorer scientific equipment, I found almost 
invariably that the man from British stock was the most useful, ener- 
getic, and reliable, and these qualities outweighed their lack of know- 
ledge to such an extent that I came to the conclusion—get a Britisher 
every time. This being so, how much superior would the Britisher be 
if he were not handicapped by insufficient scientific training. My firm 
opinion is that, train the Britisher properly, no other nation will be 
able to beat him. In order to avoid any misapprehension, I wish to 
point out that my remarks only apply to the large bulk of the popula- 
tion. There are eminent men of science in the Empire, as eminent as 
any that can be found anywhere—perhaps even more so. These men 
would probably have been eminent under any system of education. 
Eminent men come out of our universities and hold their own anywhere 
in the world. I am not discussing these. I am only advocating a 
better system of education for the average man, so that the average 
standard of efficiency should be raised. I do not wish to pose as an 
expert in education. I am not. I am only giving my impressions from 
my experience in many countries and association with scientific men of 
various nationalities. I hold that a thighly skilled body of teachers is 
the most valuable asset a nation can possess. They form the building 
material out of which the structure of the nation is built. If the plastic 
material supplied by the Australian mothers is badly moulded and 
made into defective bricks—if the structural timber is badly seasoned— 
if the steel is badly rolled—the structure can only be a defective one, 
and no ingenuity on the part of the Government can make it first class. 
The teachers of our young manhood, who form this building 
material of our social structure, are, in my opinion, the most important 
section of our community, and no trouble or expense ought to be spared 
in drawing into this body the men with the brightest brains and biggest 
hearts—men who teach not only scientific truths, but moral truths. 
Once the first class building material is obiained from our 
unequalled resources, the task of the legislators would be a compara- 
tively easy one, but without this material it is an almost impossible 
one. 
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