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cation to Telegraphy "; Lynd's "Practical Telegraphist." For telephony: Poole's "Practical Telephone Handbook " ; Allsop's " Telephones." 3. BUILDING TRADES. Through the kindness of Dr. Garnett I am enabled to briefly mention suggestions by the employers in connection with some of the London trades as to technical instruction, and I have in addition given the text-books used in some of the institutions visited, as a guide to classes established or likely to be so, or for use in the reference libraries. Provision is made in all important centres for instruction in the various trades, of which full advantage is taken by the workmen and apprentices. Considerable difficulty has been found in obtaining fully qualified teachers to meet the demands made. Masonry and Brick-work. —Classes are engaged in the following work: Treatment of the various kinds of stone and methods of working them, such as reducing block to working sizes, squaring-up, hammer and point, mallet and tools, axed work, working from templets, circular work, simple development of mouldings and capitals, working and polishing of marble. The recommendations of the employers as to the line of study were as follows, taking as a sample lesson the stone dressing round a window-opening: (1) Drawing elevation and sections of the object to small scale; (2) enlarging drawings to the scale at which the object is to be worked out practically; (3) drawing full-sized details of sill, jambs and lead separately; (4) cutting moulds in zinc from full-size details; (5) applying these moulds to the stone and working up same, as in workshop ; (6) fitting together and setting up in position the finished stones worked by the various students. A further suggestion is made to the effect that the instructor should have a knowledge of practical plane and solid geometry, freehand drawing, elementary building construction, quality of stone, its nature and adaptabilities, the setting-out of work, &c. The Battersea Polytechnic has been particularly successful in this work. Text-books and works of reference : E. Dobson's " Masonry and Stone-cutting," also " Foundations and Concrete Works " ; Baker's " Strength of Arches " ; Bivington's " Notes on Building Construction" ; " Building Construction," by G. C. F. Mitchell. Brick-work. —The application of geometry to brick-work : Methods of obtaining and applying moulds, templets, and levels, by setting out in detail elliptical and oblique arches, domes, niches, groins, raking mouldings, tunnel and sewer construction; the nature and properties of bonding; foundations; walls; moulded cornice ; chimneys; shafts; the nature and properties of limes, cement, and bricks, and the use for which each kind is specially adapted; terra-cotta, and its application to buildings. Practical work done by the students themselves occupies most of the time, the lecture instruction being devoted to explaining principles and clearing up difficulties. Students are encouraged to attend classes in drawing, building construction, workshop arithmetic, &c, which in many cases are open without extra fee. These classes are largely attended by young bricklayers, something like two hundred passing through in London alone every year. Beference works: Dobson's "Manufacture of Bricks"; "Drawing for Bricklayers," Cassells and Co.; Eivington's or Mitchell's " Building Construction"; Pasley's "Limes and Cements"; Baker's " Strength of Arches." Carpentry and Joinery. —Large classes are held in these subjects in most centres. The work includes scale and geometrical drawing as applied to wood-work; correct use of tools ; setting out full-sized sectional or working drawings, and principles of construction. Practical work is everywhere the rule, supplemented in some cases, where there are large numbers of students, by systematic lectures. The course of work includes the whole range of carpentry and joinery, special attention being given to advanced students: as, for instance, at the Battersea Polytechnic there were examples of students' work in hand-railing, oriel-window framing, and examples of "double curvature." In several of the polytechnics the drawing classes are free to members of the carpentry and joinery classes. Special classes are also held in staircasing, hand-railing, &c. The following are some of the text-books used : Trainor's " Drawing and Bench-work," and "Advanced Practical Carpentry and Joinery"; Wilson's "Carpentry and Joinery." Beference works: Goss's "Bench-work in Wood"; Lickel's "Exercises in Wood-work"; Professor Smith's "Cutting-tools"; Holtzapfel's "Turning and Mechanical Manipulation," Part 11. ; Wilson's " Carpentry and Joinery " ; Newland's " Carpentry and Joinery"; Nicholson's " Carpentry and Joinery " ; Scott Burn's " New Guide to Carpentry." Painters' and Decorators' Work. —Useful work is being done under the above heading, and there is no reason why similar classes should not be successfully conducted in this colony in the four larger centres. The subjects generally dealt with are the mixing and matching of tints and colours, graining and marbling, sign and ornamental writing, staining, gilding, distempering, paperhanging &c, brush-work, stencilling, and more advanced decorative treatments. An employer's suggestions are as follows : " The object of the classes should be to teach learners how to become good decorators, and they should be taught, besides the workshop practice, freehand, model, and geometrical drawing. In the workshop they should be instructed in practical methods of executing work from given designs, and (1) the names and uses for the various tools, brushes, &c.; (2) how to use these tools; (3) names of the various colours, their principal properties, the art of mixing colours together to match any given colour, and how to apply the same ; (4) use of chalk-line, straight-edge, and stencil-plate; (5) the use of gold-leaf. A plain plastered wall to be prepared and painted with the requisite number of coats, and afterwards decorated with design previously prepared, the stencils being cut by the students. After the above grounding the student should proceed with the study of drawing and designing in its higher branches.

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