TECHNICAL CLASSES

Otago Witness, Issue 2894, 25 August 1909, Page 53

TECHNICAL CLASSES

The monthly meeting of the Board of Managers of the Dunedin Technical Chisscs held on the 18th instant, was attendsd by Messrs G. M. Thomson, M.P. (chairman), A Burt, A. Sligo, W. Scott, J. Mitchell, J. H. Walker (Mayor), T. Scott, P. Goyen, J. B. Shacklock, G. C. Israel, Rev. P. B. Fraser, and A. Marshall (director). Ifc was agreed to hold an oi>en night and to invite the University Council and the teaching staff to attend. The Rev. Mr Fraser a.*ked if the board intended to approach the Minister with a representation from the school when a request for a public grant was made to him for establishing a Chair of Domestic Economy at the University. It seemed to him the Technical School existed for the purpose of teaching that subject, and it had been taught, and successfully taught, in the school, and if it wanted improvement it should be done in this school. To take away that subject and make it an adjunct of the University was to that extent destroying the u^efulncf* of the school. Why should two bodies teach the same tiling? If the Minister was already paying for the teaching of the subject at the school, either they were teaching it rightly or they were not, and if they were, he submitted, a committee of the board might look into the matter .and

see -the exact drift and purpose of the proposal of the University Council, and whether it was antagonistic to the welfare of the school and the public interest. — Mr Israel x said the outcome of the interviews of the two gentlemen who had taken a prominent part in the matter showed that a portion of the syllabus in connection with the subject was to be taken at the Technical School. It seemed to kirn that the Inspector-general had been protecting them to that extent.— Mr T. Scott: We 6hould see that it is compulsory that the practical part should be taken at the Technical School, and thereby safeguard the interests of this institution.— Mr Burt agreed with Mr Fraser. If the Government gave any grant for the subject it should be given to the Technical School, and he believed if Mr Studholme had been properly adviaed, or if he had known the work of the Technical School, he would have given a grant to the school instead of the University. — It was resolved to appoint a committee to look into the exact nature of the .proposal and to ascertain to what extent it would affect the school, the committee to report to next meeting, with a view to approaching the Minister.