The help given by the Board to Polytechnics may be thus stated:
1. Equipment grants made from time to time for specific purposes.
3. Three-quarters—not exceeding £500 a year—of the principal’s salary.
4. 10 per cent. on the fixed salaries of the teachers.
5. 1d. for each hour’s attendance of each student.
6. 15 per cent. on all voluntary subscriptions and donations from private sources.
Provided that the total payment to any Polytechnic under 2, 3, 4, and 5 does not exceed £3000, and under 6 does not exceed £2000.
The Polytechnics are really subsidised from five different sources: private generosity, city companies, ancient and hitherto misapplied charities, part of the proceeds of the ‘beer and spirit tax,’ grants from the South Kensington Department.
Dreary as are such enumerations of names and figures, there is a special interest attaching to this particular set. The aggrieved ratepayer is apt at times to point to these splendid buildings as an example of the way in which his hard won money is being squandered, quite regardless of the fact that those papers he abhors have never contained any appeal for money for this purpose. London has never levied a technical education rate, thanks to these other sources of income which have given her citizens so much without any sacrifice on their part. The beer and spirit money has acted the part of a fairy godmother to London men and women.
It was made clear from the outset that both sexes were alike to benefit, and thus the Polytechnics have become what our American cousins call ‘co-educational.’ But the needs of men and women are not always the same, and the special wants of women were considered in the establishment of a domestic economy side, though they are not limited to this. Practically the whole field of education beyond the elementary is open to county council action, provided no aid is given to institutions with a definite religious bias or conducted for private profit. The only subjects distinctly excluded by the Acts are classics and literature. The money is therefore available for purposes of—(1) definite Trade instruction; (2) day and evening classes in Science, both theoretical and applied, and Domestic Economy; (3) secondary education of a modern character.