§ MR. O'MARA (Kilkenny, S.)I beg to ask the Secretary of State for India if he can say how long the Board of Visitors took to consider and adopt Colonel 567 Ottley's suggestions to remodel the studies and dismiss the professors of Cooper's Hill College; and what expert advice did they receive and consider before reporting.
§ LORD G. HAMILTONColonel Ottley's suggestions for the rearrangement of the course of study at Cooper's Hill are dated 13th June, 1900, and the Report of the Board upon them is dated the 24th of the same month. The Visitors who signed the Report are, with scarcely an exception, experts of the highest authority upon the technical questions submitted to them, and they are selected in order that they may advise as experts.
§ MR. O'MARAWere the conclusions come to by the Committee at a single sitting?
§ LORD G. HAMILTONThe Committee had the memoranda some time before them. The Report was a long and exhaustive one, but I cannot say whether its consideration only occupied one sitting.
§ MR. O'MARAWas not the meeting to consider the Report called for the 24th, and did not the Committee report the same day?
§ [No reply was given.]
§ MR. O'MARAI beg to ask the Secretary of State for India if he can state how many visits the Board of Visitors made to Cooper's Hill College during 1900.
§ LORD G. HAMILTONSeveral visits were paid to Cooper's Hill in 1900 by members of the Board, but I cannot give the exact number.
§ MR. BARTLEYIs not a visitors' book kept?
§ LORD. HAMILTONI cannot say.
§ MR. O'MARAI beg to ask the Secretary of State for India whether he can inform the House who requested Colonel Ottley to prepare a new curriculum of studies and a new time-table for Cooper's Hill College; and what special qualifications did he have for this work.
§ LORD G. HAMILTONColonel Ottley was informed when he became President that the existing system of instruction was not considered to be satisfactory and 568 required remodelling. Colonel Ottley has an unbroken experience of twenty-five years service in India in almost every department of civil engineering, and the special knowledge he thus obtained of the training and capacity of the young engineers working under him from Cooper's Hill pre-eminently qualified him to advise as to the special technical training required for the Public Works Department in India.
§ MR. O'MARAAm I to understand that the code of regulations, which provides that the President shall be assisted by the teachers in regulating the course of studies, is not carried out by the present President?
§ LORD G. HAMILTONI understand that Colonel Ottley has been in frequent communication with the teachers.