The Tasmanian Parliament made provision for 'the teaching of the principles of technical education' in the Education Act (1885). Regulations specifying courses of instruction and establishing a committee of Technical Education followed in 1887. The first government Technical School opened in Hobart in 1888, offering evening classes in technical art and applied mechanics. Two months later a school was established in Launceston. Small classes were also held in regional centres and Schools of Mines were established in Zeehan, Queenstown and Beaconsfield. Curricula quickly expanded to include subjects ranging from mineralogy and metallurgy to commercial economy, beginning the long tradition of directly linking the schools with the interests of business and industry. The Technical Schools largely worked independently, with varying degrees of success, until 1916 when a Commission of Inquiry recommended the integration of technical education into the state education system. The outcome was a new Technical Education Branch, formed to administer Technical Schools and Schools of Mines and to provide a structured technical education system, comprising distinct trade certificates and applied sciences, engineering and arts diploma courses. Pale orange soft covered booklet.hobart, technical school, syllabus, malcolm kennedy, a. mault, r.s. pemberton, a. morton, a.j. taylor, henry lamb, j. mcmeekin, j.h. hunt, j.r. trantham-fryer, f.g. howell, w. middleton, trevor russell, j.f. echlin, w.f. ward, archibald park, a paton miller, committee members of technical education, department of art, department of mathematics, department of engineering, department of commercial economy, department of geology mineralogy mining, department of chemistry, department of pharmacy, department of veterinary science