The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1887-10-08 00:00:00

LORD DERBY ON TECHNICAL EDUCA.
TION.

Sir J. Poole, Mayor of Manchester, on Saturday
laid the foundation-stone of the Walker Eagineerina
Laboratories, which are being presented to Liverpool
University College by Sir Andrew B. Walker at a cost
of £20,000.
Lord Derby, as President of the College, afterwards
distributed the medals and prizes to the successful
students, at the inaugural meeting of the session in
St. George's Hall. Before discharging his duty,
however, his lordship delivered a speech in which
he congratulated those connected with the college
on the singular and remarkable success which
had attended its existence of less than ten years.
(Cheers.) From the first the plan of establishing
the college was warmly taken uP and largely sup-
ported. In October, 1881, the charter of incorpora-
tion was granted. The first meeting of the governors
was held two months later, and the college was
openrd for regular work in January of the succeeding
year. In the course of less than seven years seven
professorships had been founded with a perpetual en-
dowment of £lOOO each. The present site had been
secured, buildiugs had been erected upon it sui ed to
the immediate requirements of the college, large
sums had been contributed for various purposes,
special and general, by private persons acting
individually or collectively. Every year up to
the present had brought about an increase of
their resources due to individual liberality, and
that notwithstanding times wHch had not been
prosperous. It was in the last year of their existence
that the most important step in advance had been
taken. The engineering department was that which
twslve months ago needed help, and the help had I
been forthcoming. Sir Andrew Walker, not for the I
first tinie—(cheers)—had stepped forward to supply
a lelt public want, and his contribution of £20.000
was the largest which had been received by the college
from any one donor. Almost at the same time, Mr.
Harrison, who had helped them once before, supplied
one thing that was still wanting, a permanent
endowment for the chair of engineering by a gift
of £lO,OOO. (Applause.) Having enumerated other
gifts, notably one by Mr. Holt of .£lOOO to assist
in establishing a library, his lordship pointed
out that whereas the tendency of the day was to
call on the State to do everything for everybody
—in other words, that each man was trying to get the
par icular work which he was interested in done at
somebody else's expense—the friends of the college
had contributed not much less than £200,000 from
their private means to supply a public need. (Ap-
plause.) From the State they had asked nothingand
they had received nothing. From municipal audio-
ritien thsy had the liberal grant of £30,000 to spend
in lands and buildings by an Act passed in 1882, the
whole of which money hsd been absorbed. The
number of students had steadily increased, and they
had ample evidence in other ways that the teaching
of the college had not been thrown away.
What they now wanted was a larger and better build-
ing, not. merely or mainly for show, but for use.
(Hear. hear.)
Speaking at a luncheon given in the University
Colloge in connection with the laying of the founda-
tion-stone, Lord Derby referred to technical educa-
tion, remarking that it was absolutely necessa, for
the people of this country to judge for themselves if
they intended to hold their present place in
.the
world. Under a pressure of industrial competition,
more severe now than ever, thi+ was the wrong time
to rest upon our prestige, or to let ourselves grow fat
and lazy. We should have to struggle hard to keep our
position, but he thought we should do it—(cheers)
—because he believed that. an Englishman showed
beht when he was hardest pressed. If they
asked nine out of every ten persons acquainted
ezi,ll such matters why we were being preoted
very herd by foreign competition their reply would
he because foreigners worked harder, worked longer
',ore, lived mole cheaply, and were better trained.
fle did not wi.h our people to work longer hours or
to live more cheaply, but better training it was within
their power to supply. Better training was one of the
functions of that college to supply; hut it was not
their only function. They did not want merely to
make the community richer—though that was a very
desirable object—but they wished to make the life of
every individual fuller, happier, and more worth
living than it was. That was their function, which
they should do their utmost to discharge.

AT a village not far away an old man died, and two
women were called in to perform the last rites before
burial.--Divvent tie his feet, one of the women was
heard to exclaim, or he'll not 01142 weak through the
gate when he gets to hiyen t

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