§ SIR JOHN PAKINGTONsaid, he wished to ask the Secretary to the Admiralty, Whether the report that the Chief Constructor of the Navy has examined Apprentices and Factory Boys in Woolwich Dockyard, with a view to the establishment of a Government School of Naval Architecture, is correct; and, if so, whether the Admiralty contemplate the revival of a School of Naval Architecture for the Royal Navy, in 519 preference to the combined action of the Admiralty and the private trade, which has been proposed?
§ LORD CLARENCE PAGETsaid, in reply, that Mr. Reed, the gentleman to whom the right hon. Baronet referred, had not received the title of Chief Constructor to the Navy, although he was intrusted with most important duties connected with ship-building. He had been sent to the dockyards with a view of preparing designs for ships of various classes, and not with a view of making inquiries as to a future School of Naval Architecture. But he (Lord Clarence Paget) might add that the Admiralty were making inquiries with a view to a future supply of Architects, not only for the Royal Navy, but also for the private trade of this country; and all their inquiries tended to the establishment of a mixed system of education rather than of one confined exclusively to the Royal Navy.