preserved. A great number of us think that it is one of the laws
of Providence that the inferior races must disappear when the
superior races come in contact with them. What, however,
we are bound to see to, as humanitarians and as Christians,
is that that extinction, where it does take place, shall be on the
lines of humanity and compassion towards them. Mr. Henniker
Heaton entertained us with some interesting anecdotes, showing
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02 Tlie Aborigines of Australin.
the faithfulness and the intelligence of the aborigines, and he gave
us a very favourable impression of them, an impression which Sir
Saul Samuel had previously expressed. The discussion would not
have been complete without the valuable contribution to it firom the
eminent scientist, Dr. Garson, on the anthropological part of the
question. Again, Mr. Cave and Mr. Parker have manfully claimed
that, even making allowance for the kindly and humanitarian
feelings that many in this country entertain, we must not do the
Colonists the injustice of supposing that when they leave the old
country they leave behind them their humanity, and are disposed to
treat all natives with whom they come in contact with harslmess
and cruelty. I will only add that not long ago I was in a country
— South Africa — in which there are a great number of aborigines.
Here they not only are not a diminishing race, but they continue
to increase. I came in contact with large numbers of them and
was pleased to see the kindly way in which they are usually treated
by the Colonists, who frequently appealed to me emphatically to
refute the notion that they had lost the feelings of humanity and
kindness that distinguish Englishmen at home, and declared that
they have the same feelings in South Africa as we have in Great
Britain. In conclusion, I will read two or three communicatioQB
received on the subject of Mr. Greville*s paper. One is from
Mr. Braddon, the Agent-General for Tasmania, who says : '' I should
have liked to take part in the discussion to explain how the total
extinction of the Tasmanian blskcks was due in a great measure to
their treachery, their internecine wars and their incapacity for
civilisation. There was, doubtless, some cruelty on the part of the
early European travellers and settlers, provoked by the unfortunate
blacks in the first instance and subsequently confirmed as a habit
by racial feud, but these Tasmanians succumbed as certainly to the
kindness which would have preserved them, as to the enmity that
would have slain.*' Another is from Mr. Eusden, an old and well-
known Colonist of Victoria, who writes to me regarding the boome-
rang : " You hardly ever see an allusion in the English Press to the
boomerang which does not refer to it as a weapon of war which
returns to the thrower, whereas the returning boomerang is not a
weapon of war, and the boomerang which is a weapon of war does
not return to the thrower. There are many kinds of boomerang: —
some for deadly strife, somefor throwing at game, and the returning
boomerang which is framed only for amusement. If a native had no
other missile at hand he would despatch it at a flight of ducks. Its
circular course, however, makes it unfit for such a purpose, and there
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The Aboriffhien of Australia, C3
is a special boomerang made for throwing at birds. The latter keeps
a straight course and a native could throw it more than 200 yards."
As regards the Western Austrahan Pearl Fisheries, Mr. T. H.
Haynes writes to say that, although a large number of the
aborigines were employed up to 1886 in the locally owned coasting
craft, this is now a thing of the past, foreign-owned vessels work-
ing diving apparatus with Malays, Papuans, and South Sea Islanders.
He says that the aborigines never took well to the work, but it had
a good effect indirectly in teaching them discipline, and making them
useful. I now beg to put the motion I have proposed of cordial
thanks to Mr. Greville.
This having been passed with acclamation, a vote of thanks to
the Chairman on the motion of Sir Saul Samuel closed the pro-
ceedings.
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C4
[' THIBD ORDINARY GENERAL MEETING/
The Third Ordinary General Meeting of the Session was held at
the Whitehall Rooms, Hotel M^tropole, on Tuesday, January 18,
1891.
Lieut.-General R. W. Jjowry, C.B., a member of the Council of
the Institute, presided.
The Minutes of the last Ordinary General Meeting were read
and confirmed, and it was announced that since that Meeting 19
Fellows had been elected, viz. 8 Resident and 11 Non-Resident.
Resident Fellows : —
Tlie Rt. Hon. Lord Carrington, G.CM.G., The Hon, Harold H Finch-HatUm^
Donald C. E. Qrant, Dr. TJtomas Hickling, James Hill, F. Graham Lloyd,
Charles Gay Roberts, Philip B. Vanderbyl,
Non-Resident Fellows : —
John C. Budd (Straits Settlements), Paul Cressall {British Guiana), Hon.
James M. Farquharson, M.L.C. (Jamaica), James H. Fawcett (Victoria),
Frederic M. Maxwell (British Honduras), William Palfrey (Transvaal), Charles
R, Swayne (Fiji), Harry L. Thompson (Cyprus), Jack Thompson (Victoria),
Hon. Charles George Walpole, M.A, (Attorney-General, Leeward Islands), Hon,
Henry J. Wrixon, Q.C. M.L.A. (Victoria).
It was also announced that donations to the Library of books,
maps, &c., had been received from the various Governments of the
Colonies and India, Societies, and public bodies both in the United
Kingdom and the Colonies, and from Fellows of the Institute and
others.
The Chairman : Before proceeding to the ordinary business of
this meeting, I may mention — what I am sure you will all be inte-
rested to know — that His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales has
graciously consented to preside at our next meeting, which will
be held at Prince's Hall, Piccadilly, on the 26th inst., when Lord
Carrington, late Governor of New South Wales, will read a paper on
*' Australia as I saw it." It would to me be a matter of consider-
able diffidence on any occasion to preside at one of these meetings.
It is more than ordinarily so when, as on the present occasion, I
have very imexpectedly been called upon to represent one whose
name is so famihar to you and whose large heart and great ability
are so much appreciated by you as Sir Alexander Gait. I regret
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Agricultural and Technical Edtication in the Colonies. 66
to say that, after having come up from Torquay to preside at this
meeting, Sir Alexander finds himself imable, on account of the
severity of the weather and the fog, to be present with us this
evening. I am sure I express the feding of you all when I say
how much we. regret his absence, and how much his attendance
would have added to the interest of the meeting. I think you will
agree, too, that we are most fortunate in the character of our High
Commissioners and Agents-General from all the Colonies. Their
presence among us is not only always heartily welcomed, but is an
unfailing source of interest, power, and information to us, and
never more so than in the cases of our late and present High Com-
missioner for Canada. Sir Alexander Gait, with his g^al presence
and his great talent, would have opened the subject of this evening's
paper in away I cannot do; but having been asked to preside I have
great pleasure, as a lover of the Colonies, in occupying — however
unworthily — the post of Chairman, and in now calling on Mr. Henry
F. Moore, who has once before addressed us from this platform, to
give us his address on —
AGBICULTURAL AND TECHNICAL EDUCATION
IN THE COLONIES.
INTRODUCTORY.
Education is really the making of men and women. It begins
with the cradle and ends only with the grave. The subject which I
have thus to bring before you this evening is a large one, even
though limited to that part of education which has a direct bear-
ing on commercial pursuits. Two years ago I had the great
honour — one which I appreciated highly — of speaking before this
Institute on a question which involved a disquisition on the subject
of the making of nations, and I then pointed out how complex was
that problem, and how many and varied were the component parts
which were being brought together in our nearest Colony and out of
which the Canada of the future still has to be evolved.
To-night my subject is the making of men and of the influences
which should be brought to bear so that in agriculture and trade
they may be best enabled to maintain the prestige of the British
name among the nations. It is not only a big subject, but it is one
that requires also the most careful consideration. There is a great
future for the question, and I know of no other which may have a
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66 AgricidiuraX and Technical Education in the Colonies.
greater effect in consoUdating and maintaining that ''United
Empire " whiob is the object of all our gatherings in this room. It
mast not be forgotten that the growing use of the English language
makes any educational work carried on in that language yearly of
more importance in connection with the progress of the entire
world. The relative growth of English-speaking people was well
pointed out in the " Times " last year by a correspondent, who stated
that it was computed that at the opening of the present century
there were about 21,000,000 people who spoke the English tongue.
The French-speaking people at that time numbered about
81,500,000 and the Germans exceeded 80,000,000. The Bussian
tongue was spoken by nearly 81,000,000, and the Spanish by more
than 26,000,000. Even the Italian had three-fourths as large a
constituency as the English, and the Portuguese three-eighths. Of
the 162,000,000 people, or thereabouts, who are estimated to have
been using these several languages in the year 1801, the English
speakers were less than 18 per cent., while the Spanish were 16,
the Germans 18*4, the Russians 18*9, and the French 19*6. This
aggregate population has now grown to 400,000,000, of which the
English-speaking people number close upon 125,000,000. From
18 per cent, we have advanced to 81 per cent. The French speech
is now used by 50,000,000 people, the German by 70,000,000, the
Spanish by 40,000,000, the Russian by 70,000,000, the Italian by
about 80,000,000, and the Portuguese by about 18,000,000. The
English language is now used by nearly twice as many people as any
of the others, and this relative growth is almost sure to continue.
English has taken as its own the North American Continent, and
nearly the whole of Australasia. North America alone will soon
have 100,000,000 of English-speaking people, while there are
40,000,000 in Great Britain and Ireland. In South AMca and
India also the language is vastly extending.
As I have just pointed out, the subject is an exceedingly vast
one. To deal with it in all its phases and ramifications woidd be
impossible, and I therefore purpose to make this paper merely a
basis for discussion, giving something tangible in the shape of a
collection of facts on which a more complete record can be based
when the proper time arrives. I therefore purpose dividing my
subject into three parts, the first of which shall be an argument
as to what really efiScient agricultural and technical education
should be ; the second giving a record of what is now being done in
British Colonies in this matter of education ; and in the third place
I shall make an appeal for something like a uniform system being
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^ Agricultural and Technical ilducatton in the Colonies. 6?
adopted for the whole of our English-speaking empire. If, in this
way, I am able to do something to bring a great question into some-
thing hke a reasonable focus for intelligent discussion, I shall be
amply satisfied.
I.— THE ARGUMENT.
What should Agbicultubal and Technical Education be?
So &r as Agricultural Education is concerned, it must not be for-
gotten that farming itself consists of three branches. There are
first of all the principles which underlie the art, and which are
variously termed " science,*' ** theory," and, by the late J. C. Morton,
the ''truth'' of agriculture. This is the side which is too often
looked upon as the whole subject of agricultui^l education ; in
reality it is but the beginning of the actual making of a successful
farmer. The work of agriculture itself begins with the actual
practice on the fftrm, or, as it may be termed, the art of agriculture.
In this the man is brought into direct contact, not so much with
principles and ideas, as with something very real, his own soil and
his own climate. He has to learn how to manage these and to apply
any theory he may have acquired for his own practical advantage.
It is here where for the first time he begins to prove his capability
to attain success as a fetrmer. But outside the field or the byre — out'
side the ring-fence of his faxm — a very important portion of the work
of a successful farmer has to be done. He has to deal with men and
things — ^with the world outside him ; he has to buy and sell ; he
has his relations with his landlord, with the State, and with the
trader. On all these matters, which constitute the business of the
fiurmer, his success or failure will very much depend. It will thus
be seen that the part played by the professor who has naught to
teach beyond the " principles " or " sciences " which underhe agri-
cultural practice is far firom being the sole matter involved in the
turning out of a really successful farmer. It also accounts for the
fact that many of the successful farmers in England owe their suc-
cess to their own shrewdness, sound common-sense, and good judg-
ment of character, and not to any teachings which come from the
purely scientific men.
While all this is true, he would be a bold man who, in the last
decade of the nineteenth century, would in the slightest degree
undervalue the help which science can and does so largely give to
agriculture ; or who would argue that, because yonder farmer has
F 2
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68 AgrictUtu/rcU and Technical Education in the Colonies.
been a snccessfol man, and yet could neither read nor write, he
owes that soocess to the absence of education. With a good sound
education he would undoubtedly have been a better man. In these
days also education (not only in the principles which underlie his
art, but in the workings of the markets of the world) is so largely
used against the interests of the farmer, that for the latter to neglect
it would be the height of foolishness.
I have endeavoured to sketch out the three branches in which a
farmer requires to be trained to become a successful pian. They
are but little different, taken in the abstract, to those which are
necessary in any other trade or calling. A barrister, to take one of
the learned professions, can only become successful by proficiency
in three branches : he has to know the principles of law ; he has to
apply those principles to the actual practice of law, either in the
courts or in his chambers ; and he has also to deal with men in
actual business. The soldier, who has to practise in the world's
carnage-fields, has to learn the principles of the art of war ; he has
to master the teachings of sci^ice with regard to the many intricate
machines which are used now in modem warfare ; and he, too, in
securing the results of his knowledge of principles, and their suc-
cessful practice, has to be a man of business also. The trader, the
mechanic, the clergyman, the sailor — all professions and callings, in
fact — ^must have a similar threefold characteristic lying below any
successful career.
The first part of the training of a farmer must be the same as
that of other classes — a good, sound, general education. In a long
paper delivered by Mr. John Chalmers Morton before the Society of
Arts in May 1877, this was the keynote. Schooling before forming
was his topic, and he insisted that the preliminary schooling was by
far the most important part of an agricultural or any other educa-
tion. Its influence was seen in the whole style of the future life,
whatever occupation the boy might ultimately follow. Here are his
words : —
'' The sound preliminary education for which I am to argue, is
not only the foundation-stone of a future building — ^it is the seed of
a future life, with influence and guidance in it, as well as mere
security and strength. And the agriculturist, whatever the distinc-
tive features of his occupation may be, will, I believe, quite as much
as any other busy man, benefit by an education which may open his
eyes a little wider than they are at present to matters which really
concern himself, though they may seem to him outside the limits of
his day's work/'
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Agricultural and Technical EchicaUon in the Colonies. 69
This ovening, although dealing more especially with agricultural
and technical education in our various Colonies, I should like to put
on record that any special education on these points will owe their
value, so &r as fimd results are obtained, to the system of general
education which may prevail in the various places of which I shall
speak. It is to the making of men that we have in the first place
to look, and if they are trained to habits of observation, knowledge
of human character, the development of shrewdness and common-
sense, and to the prompt exercise of a ripe judgment, by far the
greater portion of the elements of success — whether in agriculture or
any other calling — will have been obtained ; and for the whole of
this we have to depend mainly on the elementary training of the
chad.
I need hardly add to this that this elementary education should
be carefully arranged so as to include matters which may have a
direct bearing on the after commercial life. There should be as
little that is meaningless in the instruction given as possible, and
children should be specially trained so as to understand trade and
agricultural terms when they leave the school. It must not be
forgotten that an enormous number of artizans and small farmers —
and the whole of our future labourers — will have but little instruc-
tion except what they obtain in the primary schools. They will go
direct from these to the farm or the workshop, and then their further
education will be merely the experience gained in the battle of life.
We have in this country some 180,000 formers, of whom at least
145,000 have &rms of under 800 acres. The probability is that
nearly all of these latter will depend entirely on the elementary
schools for their education. In the Colonies, I believe the propor-
tion would be equally large. I contend therefore that among the
text-books of at least the higher standards of these schools should
be included one on agriculture and one on the mechanical trades.
It would be better if we could imitate in all our big manufetcturing
centres the system which works so well in Switzerland, and one of
which was thus described in the report of the Boyal Commission on
Technical Education : —
One of the best elementary Swiss schools visited by the commissioners
is that on the Tindescher Platz, in Zurich. . . . All the children learn one
foreign language ; moreover, they are all taught drawing, and have object
lessons in natural history. In the higher classes they are instructed in
the rudiments of chemistry and physics, great pains being taken to place
before the children well-arranged specimens which are contained in a
school museum.
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70 Agruyiiltural and Technical Education in the Colonies.
Having thus seen to the foot that the primary education is sound
and good, we next come to the secondary or intermediate education.
Whether for technical or agricultural instruction, the numbers going
in for this are necessarily small as compared with those who re-
ceive primary instruction. For that reason, I think there would be
economy, without loss of efficiency, if technical and agricultural
classes of an advanced character were added to the subjects taught
in our various secondary or grammar schools. It must not be for-
gotten that we are dealing with the training of feirmers and the
better class of artisans, and that the education which they are likely
to ask for is not of that high class more suited to the training of a
professor. It is the same in the Colonies, and the United States^
and on the Continent. The great establishments, at which all the
sciences are taught, are places from which the teachers are sent out
and not ordinary farmers or mechanics. The late Mr. Morton thus
defined his idea of what a perfect education for the fanner should
be: —
Professor Wrightson, says : <* A perfect agricultural education should
include geology, biology, engineering and mechanics, rural and political
economy, commercial knowledge and book-keeping, law, and meteorology.' '
However desirable all this may be for the fature professor, the young
fEumer certainly does not need it alL I do not think it would be a good
thing to take him out of his fother's guidance. There is an immense ad-
vantage in homely accustomedness to all the details of life upon the farm.
I would add that whenever land can be got for these secondary
schools, or a workshop erected, they could not fail to be of immense
advantage.
The higher education cannot be too complete. In the agricultural
colleges the future landlords, land agents, and professors are taught ;
while in the technical colleges the owners and managers of large
manu&cturing works, and the future teachers are also prepared.
These will all have great responsibilities, and all require the highest
training. Here Professor Wrightson's definition is appropriate, in
fact anything less would be a mistake.
I started by saying that education commenced with the cradle
and ended with the grave. The school or college life are not, there-
fore, its four comers. There is the work done by the press, which
brings the best of information from all parts of the world ; the great
societies, with the combinations for self-help ; and by farmers and
artisans with whom their fellows are in daily contact. All these
have a great influence in moulding character and increasing that
knowledge which is the truest power.
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Agricultural cmd Technical Education in the Colonies, 71
n.— THE WORK ACCOMPLISHED.
In order to see what is now being done in the matter of agricul-
tural and technical education in the various parts of our Greater
Britain, I have obtained &om a number of the chief officials of the
various Colonies and Dependencies reports and information on the
subject, the whole of which were written in the latter part of last
year. These are such as will enable us to, as it were, take " A Trip
round the World," calling in at the various places under British
rule, in order to see what has already been accomplished. I cannot
pretend that this is a complete record of what is being done, but it
at any rate will afford a basis on which a complete story can be
written.
So far as Europe is concerned, the only Colony to which allusion
need be made is
Malta.
By the courtesy of the Governor, Lieut.-General Sir H. A. Smyth,
E.C.M.G., I have received the last report of the University, together
with the statutes of the same. The former also deals with the
primary and secondary education, from which it appears that the
island is very well provided so far as general education is con-
cerned. In connection with the University, in addition to schools
of chemistry and physics, is a very good course of studies in
architecture and land surveying, these extending over three years,
and for proficiency in which degrees are conferred. There is
also a very good commercial school, which has recently been
thoroughly recast, with a view to render it more practical, one
of the new studies being mercantile geography. Agricultural
education does not seem to be included in the educational scheme
of the island, but trade, navigation, and mechanics have a large
place in connection with the University.
Cyprus.
In this recently acquired pseudo-colony the system of education
is well described in the following memorandum, which has been
specially prepared for me by the High Commissioner, Sir H. E.
Bulwer, G.C.M.G., and which puts the matter very pithily : —
Excepting a few so-called " High " schools, of the nature of an English
grammar sobool— namely ; One Turkish (*' Bushdi^ ") aud ono Christian
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72 Agricultural and Technical Edtication in the Colonies.