TECHNICAL EDUCATION AND MILITARY TRAINING.

King Country Chronicle, Volume II, Issue 61, 20 December 1907, Page 3

TECHNICAL EDUCATION AND MILITARY TRAINING.

[By " Recruit."]

The Volunteer movement, which got such an impetus during the late Boer war, has been failing ever since, and even enthusiats who have given a lot of time and money to help on the movement are getting disgusted at the lack of interest taken in it, especially by the young men of the Dominion. The people, generally, are getting into that sleepy state which usually has a rude awakening. When some twenty years ago a Russian invasion was feared, the people suddenly realised into what a defenceless state we had fallen,, and how short of ammunition, guns, equipment and trained men we were, and a regular panic occurred. Every nerve was strained to make up the deficiency ; then as the fear died away, so also did the enthusiasm, till the people had got back into a lethargic state. This feeling prevailed until the Boer war woke them up again. As there was no fear of an invasion at that time there was no panic, but the subject of defence was resuscitated and proclaimed a pressing necessity. However, the same thing has again occurred, and we are once more in that happy, slothful state. Now, had the Russians really intended to invade New Zealand, the defence force at that time could only have offered a poor show at resistance, and the same thing which we escaped so easily before may next time have a different termination, and it behoves us in time of peace to prepare. I have no doubt that in the event of invasion New Zealanders would prove to a man that they still retained the spirit of their ancestors, and there would be no lack of men willing, but alas, untrained, and what hope has an undiciplined rabble against trained troops. Anybody* who reads and studies the signs of the times, must see that older counfries, ! particularly Asia, are getting overcrowded and are looking for room to expand. It is not a densely populated country with a standing army they want, but a thinly populated country with no army, and New Zealand fills the bill. Suppose Japan intended at any time to invade New Zealand there would be no warning.

While looking at the military side of the question we must not lose sight of the fact that the industrial war is going on all the time, and whether it is military warfare or industrial warfare, other things being equal, the side best equipped will win. Twenty-five years ago, when Japan, which has astonished the western nations, was quietly preparing for both, Britain which built her fleet was also building her manufacturing machinery. Now mark; when Japan let a contract, whether for a warship or a cotton loom, there was a clause inserted, that so many Japanese cadets were to be employed in the works of the firm that secured the contract, and twenty years ago the Clyde and other shipbuilding yards and workshops were swarmingwith Japanese cadets. Japan at that time was going in for technical education, on a small scale, certainly, and the smartest boys were drafted into the best workshops of the world to finish their education. The time is not far distant when New Zealand, if she intends to exist, must go in for some sort of universal military training. She cannot afford to keep a standing army, and it is questionable whether it would be advisable even if she could afford it. Why not combine the two, and make it compulsory for every able-bodied boy to put in a year between sixteen and twentyone at a combined Military and Technical College, where he could be taught dicipline, the use of a rifle, and technical education as applied to whatever line of life he intended to follow. It is often said, and said truly, that boys, in the country are at a disadvantage as compared with boys in the city who have a technical school af hand, and as a properly equipped technical school is an expensive necessity, they cannot be spread over the eountry like primary schools, but if the Government took an area of say two thousand acres, as far from a city as possible, where the youth would have nothing outside to attract their attention, and established experimental farms, workshops, and schools military and otherwise, send some of the who proved \hem§elv§S the brightest to the lav-ge centres in the world to finish their particular trade or profession, I venture to say that there would in a few years be no necessity for applying to older countries for all sorts of experts as at present, We have the raw mateyiaj here, and the Ne\y given a fair chance, has proved that he can hold his own all over the world. The scheme may appear a large order, but if we consider what defence and technical education costs atppresentt t an 4 the fact that technical education at least oflly helps a small proportion of the population the scheme both from an efficiency and financial point of view is worth considering.