21. TECHNICAL EDUCATION IN CANADA. The term technical education is used with a variety of meanings. The general idea seems to be the use of schools and indus trial appliances in preparing young men and women for skilled occupations. °Even in Ger many," we are told, °the old apprenticeship is dead.' However even the narrower statement seems to be becoming still more limited, for the legal and clerical professions, which seem still to require education and apprenticeship, and even the medical profession, which demands a time course and fixed laboratory work, are not now regarded in the public mind as coming under the heading of technical education. Tech nical education, in its present more limited use, seems to be regarded as a joint course of pro portionate time in the class room and another period of time in the practice of handicraft— sometimes spoken of as a °trade or °industry.' Whether this definition be generally accepted or not, we shall follow it in this article.
In Canada the most notable event in con nection with this specific education is found in the appointment in 1910 of the °Royal Commis sion on Industrial Training and Technical Edu cation.' As one of the commissioners on this body the writer may state that it was consti tuted as a court with seven members from different parts of Canada with a skilled secre tary'. This body, under the direction of the Dominion government, spent two years or more in (1) taking sworn evidence in Canada from 1,400 witnesses of every class (including in the evenings representatives of the °labor organiza tions') as to their industrial needs. (2) Visit ing manufactories, schools and universities in Canada. (3) Going, under government direc tion, to other countries, including the United States, and in Europe, the British Isles, France, Germany, Switzerland, Holland, Belgium and Denmark. (4) Embodying their report in four
large octavo volumes aggregating in all nearly 2,000 pages. In their report *the Royal Com mission gave an elaborate sketch of what they had seen in all these lands and made a recom mendation that $3,000,000 a year for 10 years, making a total of $30,000,000, should be appro priated for securing °industrial training and technical education' for as many as sougbt it among the Canadian people.
In the Canadian Confederation the matter of education is reserved to the nine provinces of the Dominion, viz., Nova Scotia, New Bruns wick, Prince Edward Island, Quebec, Ontario, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta and British Columbia. To meet this case, the proposal of the Royal Commission is that while the Do minion will give the money to be supplied and administered by a °Dominion Government Com mission" appointed by itself, yet it is to be given through the medium of boards and committees under the authority of the several provinces. The suggestion has been cordially received by the various provincial governments, and but for the European War, in which Canada as a part of the British empire is involved, would have been almost certainly carried out.
The Objects of the Royal These arc: (1) The education of trained teachers and demonstrators to carry out the purposes of the commission. (2) The estab lishment of classes, courses and schools for industrial training and technical education. (3) Provision to be made for laboratory ap paratus and teaching equipment. (4) Scholar ships to be given to deserving pupils. (5) Pro vision for traveling experts to visit institutions. (6) Help for institutions, such as universities and colleges. (7) Promotion of diffusion of i scientific and industrial research.