THE TECHNICAL SCHOOL.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 45, 18 March 1909, Page 2

THE TECHNICAL SCHOOL.

OPENING OF THE 1 »U!) SESSIONS There was au unexpectedly large gathering lust night at the ollicial opening of the New Plymouth Technical School's 1909 sessions. From the time the doors opened the public arr ved in a continual stream, and soon there wen' more people strolling about the classrooms, inspecting some oi the work of last year's classes, than the building «?ould comfortably accommodate. In the | hall was displayed some lovely specimens of the wood-carver's art, much ot this work having been done by pupils

of only one year. An interesting portion of the display was the student s outiit of mallet, eh sels, etc., the whole costing less than one pound sterling. Amongst and about this work of Mi. Moverley's pupils were placed some excellent water-colour sketches, crayon and other drawings, from the art classes, or which Mr. K P. Fenton is the instructor. A noteworthy exhibit was an excellent crayon lite-size portrait of his Worship the Mayor, who i«s a most enthusiastic supporter of the technical school, lit t u woodwork room Mr. I'. W. Sandtord had several sets of boy, industriously working to drawings, and there was also a large exhibit of the splendid work turned out of the plumbing room, under the direction of Mr. H. Smart. Alter lengthy business of speech-making and prize-distribut on ill the art room, tne

sampling of the really excellent work of. tlu. instructress ami girls ill the conke \ classes was heartily appreciated, ami 11"'. ladies present expressed «>>»>> satisfaction of tlie results of tlie training rej ceived by the members of their own | fain lies. . At ei"lit o'clock the crowd, or such po - tion of it us could be there accommodated, gathered ill the art room tor tin ccrcnionv of ollicially opeuiiiy the school, the presentation of cevlihcates g.in e<l and of the prizes won ill the cadet, -il l matches. His Worship the Majoi, Jli. /: Tisch. presided, and apologised tor the ti-sence of Messrs. James Wade man of the Kducation Board), W. 1i • \i i> vr irraser E. A» Corkill, Jenuuigs, M.1., A,iast y . . il{ and H- Maunder, and on bilulf oi tlie Education Board extended to the

large number of people present a very lu-arty welcome. lie referred to tlie gratitving growth of the number o pupils from m tl« first ,\eai °lB in the nevt, and 23d last year. Hie exliibition of work was very indeed, and it touched veiy nigh sla d ard. Of particular attractiveness was e display of wood-carvii.g. lie apologised for the absence of the carved sideboaii which hid been se.Ai for the owner instead of beaig here as promised, owing to a m«»ndustanding! Owing to the crowded state of the room and the limited seating accommodation, he contented 'hiiuseli with a brief speech, urging all present to assist m further ng the success of the school. . , .. i 1 Mr. AV. A. Ballantync, director oi tcclinical'education, briefly referred to the

success of the classes, stating thai; tin 230 individual pupils o£ last year iepre sented nearly double that number o attendance, for some students had takei three ov four subjects. Unfortiraatel> there wore some classes which were ver; poorly supported. Of mac unci, and building construction were example.11c asked employers to help the schoo by preferring the employees who too the trouble to perieut themselves l>y at tending technical classes in then- even ings. The classes as a whole had no been self-supporting last year, and til instructors' salaries had cost C4U mor than the amount of fees received. Jlu the .Borough Council and private cit /.ens and linns had come to the assist ance of the educiitiona'l authorities, ani with tile (lovernnient subsidy thev ha managed to get along, lie introduced t the notice of the public the two ue\ instructresses, Misses .1 ones tdvrssinak ing) and Mac Donald (cookery). Uoli had exceedingly high testimonials. II would here like to pnljlifly appreciate til, willing services aud hearty eo-operatioi of the instructors, lie also tcnderci his thanks to the local l'ri-ss for theii ever rendy assistance, lie concluded l>,"> reading a lengthy euhighmi of technica education by .Mr. Roosevelt, ex-Presi-dent of the United States. Jlis Worship then presented the certificates won by students in the various classes last year. Many of those to whom certificates had been awarded had been "crowded out" into the passages, and were unable' to come forward ami obtain their certificates. .Mr. Jl, Okey, Al.l\, in a brief speech, said he knew the Government was going

to give preference to candidates for employment who had attended technical school classes. He did not agree with the Minister of tlie Crown who had declared that technical education should be made compulsory, for he did not believe in spending a lot of money on people who had to be forced to take advantage of such an excellent system. In passing through the woodwork classroom lie had noticed how well the boys had settled down to their work an.l tiieir business-like movements in carrying out the instructor's requirements. CADETS' SHOOmCi PIttZKS.

Then followed tho presentation ot • prizes won by the school cadets in Die recent shooting matches under llie Tarainiki lliiic Association. lie referred to , the very great help given him in tin; cadet movement by the Education IJoaru ; and private citizens. ille referred to the success of the primary school cadets who hailed from tiie secondary department of a public school. Tin; lifth standard hoys had been disinclined, as they said, to " tackle whiskers/' but the boys had managed lo beat "whiskers/' ami they now go in with better heart. Tiie .Mayor's very handsome cup, for the best bugler in the battalion, "was then handed to Jhigler Itoy Elliott, of the Central School Corps." The prize' presented by Messrs. J3allantyne audi AVJieUev, the school inspectors, .for the ' best-kept tent at the recent battalion ; camp, had not come to hand, but it will be forwarded to the Waitara corps, who had won it. With it goes Messrs. .Sole Bros' prize of half-a-guinea. .Messrs. Cilmour and Clarke's Cup for the highest score iji No. 1 match will be forwarded to Cadet lJcauehamp, at Waitara. The Association'* trophies were not ready in time for presentation. At the conclusion of the presentation of the cash prizes by Captain Mills, treasurer of the Hille Association, Lieut.Colonel Jioveday, in charge of our public school cadet system, was asked to say a few words, and 110 congratulated the Taranaki district upon being the only district in New Zealand where the adult Jlille Association took au active interest in encouraging rille shooting amongst the school cadets, deferring to some remarks of .Major Saudfonl concerning some high school 'boys in a public svho'd cadet corps, lie ventured to hope that very soon there would be formed a cum* I pany of defence cadets inlo which those bigger and enthusiastic cadets might he drafted, lie was living in hopes that the day was not far distant when the system would be improved in snrli a Svay as to .provide continual military service from the schools to the volunteers or ;i cnl! to service. Lieul.-Colonel Okey, representing the Taranaki Uille Association and the Taranaki volunteer battalion, addressed the , assemblage on the 'great value of rille- 4 shooting to the hoy. to the man, and to ( the country, and expressed his pleasure f that that was now being displayed in , this useful pastime by the boys of our . public school cadet companies. , Supper was then served.