works. He then at last obtained from the Governor-General an adequate financial provision for the work, and thenceforth Cautley sailed with a favouring breeze into the haven of ultimate completion.
Then, being always an educationist, Thomason originated a project of his own. Seeing that there would be a large demand for engineer subordinates in the irrigation department, he resolved to train Natives accordingly. For this purpose he established at Rúrki. most suitably situated near the head-works of the great canal, a College of Civil Engineering for Natives; in which arrangement European non-commissioned officers and other Europeans were afterwards included. Subsequently the institution was enlarged by him, and raised in quality for the reception of commissioned officers, until it became a technical college of a high order. Thus he took the first step on behalf of technical education in northern India.
The Rúrki College is now a structure of imposing dimensions and architectural beauty, in keeping with the high scientific culture for which it is maintained. Its educational resources, its apparatus, its laboratories and workshops, its alumni of varied creeds and colour, its students of many ranks and grades, passing in and out of its courses — all render it one among the technical institutions of the British Empire certainly, and perhaps also of the world. Its situation was interesting from proximity to the Himálaya, but was important, because hard by were the most arduous works in the whole course of the canal. Here, under
