“TREATED AS A SIDELINE”

Dominion, Volume 14, Issue 194, 12 May 1921, Page 6

“TREATED AS A SIDELINE”

—_— MAYOR ON TECHNICAL EDUCATION WHAT ARE OTHER NATIONS DOING? The newly-installed Mayor of AVellington (Air. 11. A. Wright, M.P.) yesterday delivered a brief address to tho delegates assembled at tho technical education conference. Ho expressed most emphatically his conviction that the country could not afford to neglect technical education while its competitors were making the most of their 'technical education systems. Speaking as a man of business, Air. ■Wright said it appearea to him that tho young people of New Zealand bad not been given the technical instruction that they might have been given, and were entitled to have. In AVellington this was probably duo to tho handicap of ’lnadequate accommodation—a handicap that should soon be removed with the building of the new technical college. He believed, that in the circumstances the technical teachers in Wellington had done excellent work. The. importance of technical education must be apparent to tho most casual observer. How was New Zealand to compete with the other nations that were devoting so much time and so much money to this class of instruction? He did not like to bring in the name of Germany by way of illustration, but the Germans were now spending and had always spent, huge sums on every branch of education, so that they were turning out a race of people who would be stronger competitors than our own people, unless the latter got into step. Unless the British nation took off its coat as the German had done, and endeavoured to instruct the young with a view to (making them first-class tradesmen or professional men, the Germans would win in the competition for'trade, and there, would.be a very ugly time ahead. While British workmen were striking or going slow, the Germans wore "at it hammer and tongs,” with tho result that they would get ahead and secure the markets of the world if the British did not wake up. New Zealand must devote the same attention to technical education e.s Germany and America were doing. Tho Americans were spending huge sums on technical training, and anyone who had been in the States would see that the system of working there was totally different from ours. In America they paid big wages, but they did get a day’s work done. Perhaps they drove a little too hard—he would not be prepared to deny that. ’ But New Zealand workers were drifting into a way of doing as little as they could, and getting as much as they could in return. The nation could, not go on like that. Capi. tai was being consumed and not replaced. Wages could not be paid out of capital, but must bo paid out of profits, Technical education had the tendency always to train the young people to think for themselves, and once they could think for themselves all was well. —

He recognised the difficulties of the Government, but he would insist that however tho Government economised, it should not do so by cutting down the educational grants. The technical education grant must not be cut down. The country must deny itself in some other direction first, or must even bear heavier taxation. In the past, technical education had not received the attention it deserved. A section of tho people apparently thought that it was x sort of hobby of cranks. That section must be unaware of what this country’s competitors were doing. From the Year-Book he gleaned the following statistics of educational expenditure:— 1914. 1920. Elementary branch ... 707,431 1,348,999 Secondary and higher 108,437 220,525 Technical 79,736 113,766

Air. AVright observed that while the other two items of expenditure had been practically doubled, the expenditure on technical education hod increased by only about, 50 per cent. Technical education was evidently regarded as a side-line. He was not com. plaining about the amounts spent on other lines of education. He did not think they were a penny too large. But tho Government wa.s apparently overlooking technical education, and he had no doubt that the conference would impress upon it the shortsightedness of this policy. In conclusion, Mr. Wright mentioned the shortage of apprentices. It made him wonder, he said, how the trades were to be carried on when the plresent generation pf ‘tradesmen was gone. If technical instruction received greater encouragement boys would be mono likely to look to the various trades for their future. Applause.)