Technical Instruction in Ireland.

While the preceding remarks apply to the United Kingdom as a whole, including those portions of Ireland, and more especially of the province of Ulster, in which the factory system is folly developed, other portions of the latter country require to be separately considered. In saying this we refer more particularly to the poor and remote districts of the west.

Dublin.—Before proceeding to this part of the subject, however, we would refer very shortly to the question of technical instruction suitable for foremen and workmen in Dublin. While science and art classes, many of them very successful, are to be found in several of the important towns of Ireland, there are scarcely any science classes at work in Dublin. Various reasons were assigned to us for this state of things, some of them of a kind into which it is not expedient that we should enter. At the same time, there is in Dublin the Royal College of Science, with a staff of competent professors an admirable technical museum, and laboratories fairly well equipped for practical work. It appears from the evidence that, of the small number of students who follow a complete course of instruction in this institution, about one-half are Englishmen, holders of the royal exhibitions of the Science and Art Department, scarcely any of whom become teachers of science in Ireland. There are no short summer courses at the college, like those at the normal school at South Kensington, for the instruction of science teachers. There are, we are aware, some courses of evening lectures, but, although the laboratories of the college are the only ones in Dublin available for practical evening instruction, such instruction in science and in mechanical drawing terms no part of the arrangements of the college. It appears that by the rules of the Science and Art Department the professors of the college cannot earn grants on the page 52 results of instruction in science, as would he the case if they were ordinary science teachers We are of opinion that so long as the effective work of the college in preparing associate students, is, and more particularly Irish students, is so limited in area as at present, evening classes with practical laboratory work should form a part of the regular college courses, and that the remuneration of the professors should depend in part on the success, or at any rate on the regular attendance, of students at such classes.

Irish intermediate schools.—We would also remark that we have received evidence of a very contradictory nature as to the teaching of science in the Irish intermediate schools. We believe, however, that it is engaging the attention of the board of intermediate education, and we only deem it necessary to state in reference to this subject that efficient instruction in science will not be possible in those schools unless they are provided with proper laboratories, which in most if not in all of them are at present entirely wanting.

But the most import ant part of our task with regard to Ireland is to consider the possibility of improving the industrial conditions of the poor and remote districts of the west by means of technical education.

Books used in Irish national schools.—By the courtesy of Sir Patrick Keenan, k. C. M. G., the resident commissioner of national education in Ireland, your commissioners have been furnished with what they understood to be a complete set of the books used in the Irish national schools. They find that these hooks art well adapted for the literary instruction of the children of various ages in those schools, and that they contain much interesting information on the natural features and resources of Ireland. But, except as to agriculture, they do not afford adequate assistance towards graduated instruction in industrial processes or in the rudiments of the sciences on which those processes are founded. As the Irish national education commissioners are by their regulations mainly responsible for the selection of the books used in the schools, this defect should receive their early attention.

Home industries and manual dexterity of Irish people.—There is a general consensus of opinion on the part Of persons of all ranks in that country, whatever may he their views on other subjects, that the prosperity of the poorer districts of Ireland may be greatly promoted by technical instruction in handicraft and in borne industries. There is a conviction not less general, and it is one which our visits have fully confirmed in our minds, that the children and voting people of Inland of the laboring class possess great manual dexterity and aptitude, which only require to be developed in order to be useful to themselves and to those among whom tiny live. As evidence of this we need only to refer to the remarkable success of the Christian Brothers and to that of the ladies of religious orders in training children and young persons for handicrafts in industrial schools and institutions of a like nature. There appears to be no reason why similar instruction to that which is given in these schools should not be given elsewhere if the necessary funds and teachers are forthcoming. We have shown that instruction of this kind given on the continent to persons in remote districts, who would otherwise be idle, has added materially to their resources, both directly and by training them for employment in larger industrial concerns, and we have ascertained that no great expenditure of public money has been required in order to produce these effects.

Not only is instruction of this kind to be desirable, but we have found that there is a willingness on the part of benevolent persons in Ireland to assist its promotion by subscription and in other ways. It is true that by some it has been proposed that the government should itself initiate, if it did not entirely charge itself with, this work, but we were happy to find there were others who would be quite satisfied if its utility the imprimatur of the government and if the state offered rewards for the ascertained result of instruction of this kind. We are of opinion that successful work of this nature, whether it be conducted by individuals or societies or by religious bodies, deserves the recognition and reward of the government. We think it no part of our duty to state which are the home industries best adapted to the conditions of different parts of Ireland. Each locality will be able to form its own judgment in regards to this, and due weight should be given by the government to such local expression of opinion, payment in all cases being dependent upon the result obtained in the schools or classes. We do not think it would be possible for the government to train teachers for a variety of home industries, but it might contribute to the payment of such teachers appointed by the localities, and it would be expedient to established a class of itinerant teachers for service in districts where resident instructors cannot be maintained.

These suggestions apply even in greater degree to the instruction of girls that of boys.

Instruction in the use of tools in Irish primary schools.—We need scareely point out that, if it be deemed desirable to introduce manual instruction in the use of tools in elementary schools at all, this would apply in an eminent degree to the primary schools of Ireland. It was stated in evidence before us that in some parts Irealand page 53 ordinary handicrafts, like those of the mason, have heroine absolutely extinct. Whether the children remain in their own immediate localities or migrate to other parts of the country or emigrate to our colonies or to foreign countries, such instruction leading up to their apprenticeship as skilled laborers, instead of their fulfilling, as is now too much the case, the part of mere hewers of wood and drawers of water, would he of the greatest value to them. We are happy to find that the authorities of the national board of education in Ireland appreciate the importance of introducing instruction in manual work into their schools. They have already begun to give instruction of this kind to some few of their teachers, with a view to quality them for imparting it to the children in the schools: hut, in order that this instruction may be satisfactory, it is important that the training of the teachers themselves should be systematic and thorough; and, obvious as this might appear to be, we do not hesitate to impress it upon the minds of the authorities of the national hoard. Until the teachers are able them salves to give the instruction, it might be given by skilled and intelligent artisans. We have reason to believe that, whenever efficient teachers can he found, the national hoard will he prepared to pay for the results of manual teaching in the primary schools. It is scarcely necessary to say that our statement with regard to drawing, in reference to schools generally, applies with equal force to the Irish schools. We may remark that the progress of children in learning home trades will ho much more satisfactory if they have been trained at school in the use of the ordinary tools for working in wood and iron and in drawing.

We shall deal with instruction in agriculture in Ireland in the succeeding subsection, in which we review the separate report of Mr. Jenkins and the evidence which we personally received in Ireland on that special branch of the subject.

Compulsory attendance in Irish primary schools.—While dealing with Irish education, we cannot refrain from expressing our satisfaction at having found that public opinion among all classes in Ireland is in favor of some measure for gradually making primary education in that country compulsory. The subject is one surrounded with difficulties of a nature which appear to us to place the discussion of its details beyond the scope of our commission. We consider, however, that we should not do our duty if we did not express our decided opinion that no marked progress in the direction of technical education can be effected in Ireland until primary education in that country has been placed on a proper footing.