Art Schools for Aktisans.

With reference to the subject of drawing, we cannot too often call attention to the extraordinary efforts which are being made abroad for instruction in art, more especially as applied to industrial and decorative purposes, and to the important influence of this instruction in furnishing employment for artisans on the continent. Without depreciating what has been done in this direction by the schools and classes under the auspices of the Science and Art Department in this country, and while fully alive to the importance of the organization which tends to the diffusion of art instruction over a wide area, your commissioners cannot conceal from themselves the fact that their influence on industrial art in this country is far from being so great as that of similar schools abroad, This is due, no doubt, to some extent to the want of proper and sufficient preparation on the part of the students, owing to the inadequate instruction they have received in drawing in the elementary schools.