THE Evening Star. PUBLISHED DAILY AT YOUR FOUR O'CLOCK P.M. Resurrexi. SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 19, 1881.

Thames Star, Volume XII, Issue 3790, 19 February 1881, Page 2

THE Evening Star. PUBLISHED DAILY AT YOUR FOUR O'CLOCK P.M. Resurrexi. SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 19, 1881.

The subject of technical Education is of such vast importance that we may be pardoned for once more turning to it. In England, institutions are gradually being established, having for their object the endowment of the young with a practical education. This has been done both in London and Liverpool, and other large centres of population are rapidly following the good example set by the metropolis of the world. On the Continent, in Prussia especially, boys when at school are taught a trade, some being taught carpentering, others smithying, and, in fact, every trade known. By the adoption of such a course, the Germans are raising both an intellectual and useful nation, and are not merely fostering the development of a nation fit only for clerkship or other mental work. The students in these useful institutions, when having completed their scholastic term, are in a position to make their way in the world, and qualify themselves while at school for the honor of citizenship. In Switzerland, woodcarving is greatly taught, and there are very few who have come from the Swiss Republic but who are excellent carvers in wood. It is necessary that some such system should be introduced into our national schools in order that our children may have both a mental and mechanical training. While on the question of education, we might again draw the attention of our readers to the want of moral training j in our educational establishments. The question of introducing it into our I public schools is at present engrossing j the attention of the Press of New i Zealand. The Bay of Plenty Times, referring to the matter, says : — School committees have important work to perform in connection with the educational requirements of the district, and we do not think that .'the householders are discharging their responsibilities when they take no pains to see that none but the best men are appointed to the office. Some of the members of the old committee are ont and out secularists in regard to education, and those that hold with us that secular education, unless accompanied by a moral and religious training, is detrimental to the . young, cannot surely give their countenance to the appointment of gentlemen that have all along manifested the most persistent opposition to any attempt to instract the young entrusted to their care in the principles of Christianity. We deem it right to Bay that, while we have no sympathy whatever with th§ cry for denominationalism, we do not approve of the exclusion of the Bible from schools, still less can we see any ground for shutting the school doois, as the | majority of the committee have done, against those that offered to hear the children read Scripture portions after hours, especially as many parents were anxious their children should enjoy this privilege. The members of the committee that refused the use of the school for this object profess great reverence for the Scriptures, but what great danger they apprehended from the bare reading of them by the young, we are at a loss to understand. There is little doubt that were moral precepts, judiciously chosen, and introduced into our public schools, without

reference to any particular sect or theology, that many of the disreputable scenes enacted by the rising generation would be put an end to. So long as the fear of God is not imbued into the young through their educational instructors, so long may we expect to see morality at other than a high standard. J j I i [ j j