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on an average five hundred students present every evening. Not quite one-fifth of them attend the classes especially devoted to trade subjects. There are about sixteen instructors, most of whom follow other occupations, and receive very moderate remuneration. Some of the manufacturers do not see the use of technical education; some are afraid of having the secrets of their processes unduly exposed ; but others require attendance at classes on the part of their apprentices, and pay better wages to those who have had technical training. Large donations have been given by individual benefactors : in 1882 Mr. Henry Bute gave £3,500, and Mr. Edwin Bute £500. Several gentlemen give small scholarships. 5. South-West Polytechnic (Chelsea) : The Chelsea Polytechnic closely resembles that of Battersea. In 1888 the Chelsea Parish Council applied to the Charity Commissioners for assistance in founding the Institute, and received a promise of £1,500 a year. Lord Cadogan offered a site worth £10,000, and added a donation of £1,000. Lord Manners gave £3,000 for a swimming-bath, and altogether £40,000 was collected. The work languished until the Young Chelsea Union took the matter up and canvassed for subscriptions. The Parish of Chelsea gave £3,000, and other subscriptions were obtained ; and to-day the deficiency, so far as the expenses of first establishment are concerned, is only about £8,000. In October, 1895, the finishing touches were still being put to some parts of the building. The left wing on the ground-floor is occupied by the School of Housework and Women's Industries, which has at once proved very successful. In the right wing are the recreation-room, a dining-room, and a kitchen. The section of fine arts, with an adjoining room for photography, is on the first floor. The central part of the building is a large gymnasium, which can be used as a theatre or lecture-room. The Chelsea Public Library is close at hand, so that the institute has no need of a library of its own. The shops for carpenters, mechanics, engineers, modellers, plumbers, &c, are on the basement. A forge is to be added. The place is lighted by electricity. The Institute is managed by a committee of representatives of the City Parochial Charities, the County Council, the School Board, and the Parish of Chelsea. In two successive years the County Council has granted for furnishing and apparatus £750 and £1,000. 6. Woolwich Polytechnic: Founded in 1889 by five persons, who maintained it at their own expense. .This institution was in danger of collapse in 1894, but the public authorities came to the rescue : The Charity Commissioners undertook to grant £1,000 a year, and the County Council promised £1,700 a year and £2,500 towards first-cost, on condition that a sum of £2,500 was collected in two years. The former proprietors presented the buildings as a free gift, and the parish levied a rate providing £500 a year. The War Department gives £200 a year. 7. City Polytechnic : The Birkbeck Literary and Scientific Institute is one of the three (sic) colleges that belong to the City Polytechnic. It is less practical and technical than theoretical and scientific, and the students for the most part are not working-men It was founded in 1823, and has been slow to introduce any large measure of technical education ; but, at the instance of the County Council, and in order to be able to claim larger grants, it has lately enlarged its laboratories and paid more attention to technology. 8. Goldsmiths' Institute : This is not called a polytechnic, but is really analogous to the institutions that bear that name, and like them, it has both members and pupils. It belongs to the Goldsmiths' Company ; it is supported by that company, and seeks no aid from the City Council; but in its last report it complains of the heavy burden of rates —£870 a year. The buildings cost £300,000, and the company expends £5,000 a year in maintenance. It excels all similar institutions in the completeness of its equipment, and is the only one that has a recreation-ground actually adjacent. Its concert hall, which has a large organ, seats 2,500 persons. A year or two ago it established a small technical museum. Generally speaking the operatives do not constitute the majority of the pupils, but in the workshops and practical classes most of the students are apprentices and journeymen. There are about 6,000 pupils. The institution gives scholarships, tenable for three years, to boys and girls coming from the Board schools in Greenwich—eight of £10, twenty-five of £5, and seven entitling the holders to free tuition. 9. St. Bride Foundation Institute : This is a printing school opened in 1894, in Fleet Street, the centre of the printing industry and of the publishing trade. It is designed to supply compositors and others with technical instruction supplementary to the practical education of the workshop. The classes are held in the evening as a matter of necessity, the pupils being all engaged in various branches of the trade during the day. Besides the school of typography, the institution has a library, rooms for reading and for meetings, a gymnasium, and baths (including a swimmingbath). The school is well ventilated, lighted by electricity, and furnished with all the machines, instruments, materials, and accessories necessary for practical instruction in every branch of the trade. The workshop is provided with excellent printing-machines of different sizes, and a very good collection of type. The whole cost £500, the contribution of the County Council being £450. The writer was present at a lesson attended by sixty-five pupils of from sixteen to thirty years. Classes for lithography and other processes will be set up as soon as arrangements can be made. Last year there were one hundred and twenty pupils. Students under eighteen pay ss. a year, and the others 12s. 6d. The City and Guilds Institute makes the ordinary grants according to the results of the examinations. The common distinction between students and members is made. The members' subscription is 7s. 6d. Honorary members subscribe £1 Is. and upwards. The County Council renders financial aid. Chapter lll.—Some other Schools. 1. The Trade Training-school: The Carpenters' Company has had the principal share in the establishment of this school, to which it contributes £1,000 a year. The company also gives £500 a year to the City and Guilds Institute, and subsidises King's College, University College, &c. Other companies assist in maintaniing the Trade School—the tilers and brickmakers, dyers, coachbuilders, plasterers, masons—and some of the members of these guilds contribute personally. The
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