Page:Convocation Addresses of the Universities of Bombay and Madras.djvu/490

 Putting aside the sciences and their various sub-divisions, upon which there will be examinations as a matter of course, there will be examinations on such practical subjects as earth-work, road- work and railway work, bridge-making, drawing, painting and design, modelling, wood, and copper-plate, engraving and etching, carriage-building, boot, and shoe-making, jeweller's work, tobacco-manufacturing, dress-making, lace-making, bread-making, and a great variety of other subjects. For every one of these—sixty-six, or thereabouts in all, —a most careful syllabus, explaining what has to be studied and how to study it, has been drawn up by experienced persons, the greatest care being taken that both the theory and practice of each subject shall be mastered. In the cookery examination, for example, not only will a knowledge of the theory be fully tested by written papers, and vivâ voce, but the candidate will be obliged to prepare, cook, dish-up, and serve, a complete dinner for four persons, under the immediate supervision of the Examiners. In instituting these examinations, we have not been thinking of the extension of knowledge and the enlargement of the mind. That belongs to the University. We have been thinking of science viewed in its application to manufactures and industries. We do not want, however, to go to the other extreme, and to train up mere rule-of-thumb workers. We desire that every art, however humble, shall be exercised in due subordination to the particular science, or sciences, within whose domain it falls. Certificates of various kinds, diplomas, prizes and scholarships will be assigned to the successful candidates in the various examinations, according to the rules laid down in the official notification.

It is to be hoped that the students of all the higher branches —such as applied mechanics, chemistry, geology, mineralogy, forestry—will possess that amount of general education which is implied by passing at least the Matriculation Examination of this University, not to say the First in Arts, but a great many youths whom nature never meant for University studies, will, it is hoped, turn aside from a road that can lead to nothing but grievous disappointment, and devote themselves to highly honourable and lucrative careers. I could wish that this scheme, and the commercial teaching inaugurated by Mr.Adam of Patcheappa's College, while being useful to every class of the community, might be specially useful to the Mahommedans, who, while they shew in this Presidency, a considerable turn for trade, show also a curious indisposition to book-learning. Of the 1,349 Bachelors of Arts, whom we had in 1884, Dr. Cornish told us.