European Scientific and Technical Education.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLI, Issue 819, 25 January 1906, Page 7

European Scientific and Technical Education.

The following letter from Professor [ Scott, of Canterbury College, to the i Board of Governors of that institution ! explains itself" J. have the honour to report that when in Europe in 1904 I spent a considerable amount of time investigating what was being dons there in the way of scientific and technical education, more especially in conncction with those subjects which fall within the scope of the School of Engineering, Electricity, and Technical Science. For this purpose I visited, amongst others, the following universities and technical schools : In Great Britain— Glasgow University; Edinburgh University; the University of Newcastle; the University of Leeds ; the University of Birmingham; the University of Liverpool; Bristol University; Cambridge University; University College, London ; King's College, London University ; the City Guilds Technical College, Finsbury ; the City Guilds Central Institute, South Kensington ; the Manchester School of Technology; Birmingham Technical School; the Herriott Watt College, Edinburgh ; and the Sunderland Technical College. Trinity College, Dublin, the University of Manchester, and many of the technical schools at which I had been five years ! previously were not revisited. On the Continent I spent some time at the Konigliche Technische Hoehschule, Charlottenburg; the Konigliche Mecban-

ische Technische Versuchs-Anstalt; and the Reiclisanstalt,Berlin. Ithen wentto the Dresden Technische Hochscluile ; the great Mining School of Freiberg ; the University ot' Leipsic ; the Technical High School of Munich; the Polytechnische Schulei, Zurich ; the Technical High School, Karlsruhe ; and the Technical High School, Darmstadt. I was impressed by the great development of education in applied science since my last visit five years ago, although much was being done then. At present all the German States are spending money lavishly on buildings and equipment, and the great manufacturing firms are assisting in no halfhearted way. The general opinion in Germany appears to be that this extensive provision of scientific education lias been a successful experiment, and that the present prosperity of the country is clue in no smali measure to the systematic instrnction and research which is carried on in the great Statesupported institutions. In England, too, there is a feeling that. German competition in the manufacturing arts can be best met by employing German methods ; so the Manchester School of Technology and the Engineering side of the new University of Birmingham are confessedly modelled upon Continental lines. Should you at some future date desire details ot these methods, I shall be happy, as far as lies in my power, to supply them."