Greymouth Evening Star. AND BRUNNERTON ADVOCATE. FRIDAY, MAY 10, 1901. TECHNICAL EDUCATION.

Greymouth Evening Star, Volume XXXI, 10 May 1901, Page 2

Greymouth Evening Star. AND BRUNNERTON ADVOCATE. FRIDAY, MAY 10, 1901. TECHNICAL EDUCATION.

The " Religion of Trusts " —and a very bod and dangerous religion it is —has received a little attention in our columns lately. Among the matters that require attention in order to act as a check to these enormous " combines " stands foremost that of technical education - a subject that so far has received but little attention in this colony and oven in England is in a very primitive state as compared with contcnontal countries. Of late years more attention is being paid to the subject, and statesmen are now bringing technical education before the multitude and endeavouring to impress upon them the necessity of paying more attention to the subject, if Britain is to retain her commercial supremacy. At a recent gathering at Wolverhampton, Lord Heseberry declared that one of the most important functions that British Chambers of Commerce would have to declare in futurre would be that of acting as committees of vigilance in watching what was passing around them. The two chief rivals we had to fear were America on the one hand, and Germany on the other. The Americans, with their vast resources, their acutenessand enterprise, together with the plan they adopted of putting their accumulated wealth into great co-operative syndicates or trusts, were perhaps the most formidable of the two; but the Germans, with their immense population, their quiet, calculating spirit, and their energy in seizing and using the best and most economical methods, constituted a factor which this country could not afford to disregard. The groat remedy upon which they must rely in the future was higher and more extended education. We bad in the people of this country the best raw material in the world; but commercial men required educating and training scientifically. A great complaint was that our commercial travellers were not adequately equipped ; they wanted knowledge of the languages of the countries to which they were sent. Then it was desirable that young men intended for commercial pursuits should acquire some acquaintance with the methods and practices of their trade rivals. lie suggested that Chambers of Commerce might with advantage establish what he would call trade scholarships, and send abroad every year batches of young men to learn all that was to be learnt in large foreign manufacturing enterprises. Such a system had for some time been practised by the Japanese with the most satisfactory results, and ho believed that any money expended in that way in this country would bring back fruit a hundredfold." And in a like in anno t more technical knowledge must be imparted to the artisan—not only in order to enable him to take a more intelligent interest in his work, but to become more pro- < ficient therein : for it may be taken for granted that all other things being equai, the educated artisan will be the bettor workman. The educated and well-read workman will, moreover, prove a stubborn opponent to these immense syndicates that hive for their object the benefit of the few shareholders at the expense of the community, and will know better and combine moro closely, to protect themselves from the octopus-like grasp it these "conspiracies " of modern days.

MEETING OF PARLIAMENT. A Government Gazette will be issued at Wellington this afternoon, suin-

moning the New Zealand Parliament to meet for the despatch of business on Monday, July Ist,