Notes

Abstract

ON Tuesday afternoon an important meeting was held in the Town Hall, Manchester, in support of the National Association for the Promotion of Technical Education. A powerful and most interesting address was delivered by Prof. Huxley. Afterwards, in accordance with a resolution moved by Sir H. E. Roscoe, and seconded by Sir W. H. Houldsworth, the meeting appointed an influential Committee to consider the proposals communicated by the National Association for the Promotion of Technical Education, and to take action thereon. Now that the vital importance of the subject is beginning to be understood in the district, there can be little doubt that Manchester will soon be supplied with a thoroughly sound and adequate system of technical instruction. The residuary legatees under the will of the late Sir Joseph Whitworth have just presented to the town a plot of land, called Potter's Park, which they have bought for £47,000. On a part of this land it is proposed that the following institutions shall be erected: (i) an appropriate Institute of Art, with galleries for paintings, for sculpture and moulded form, and for architectural illustration; (2) a comprehensive Museum of Commercial Materials and Products; (3) a Technical School on a complete scientific and practical scale. Much money will have to be provided before this scheme can be fully carried out, but in so great a centre of manufacturing and commercial energy the necessary funds should be raised without serious difficulty. The managers of the late Manchester Exhibition, like the Whitworth legatees, are vigorously supporting the movement, and their example will certainly be extensively followed. The progress made at Manchester is most satisfactory, and there are also many signs of an advance in the right direction at Liverpool and Newcastle.