MANUAL AND TECHNICAL INSTRUCTION.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXI, Issue 2993, 17 September 1908, Page 4

MANUAL AND TECHNICAL INSTRUCTION.

"Considerable progress continues to be made in the several education districts in connection with the establishment and conduct of classes for manual and technical instruction," says the Minister for Education, in his annual report. "It is to "be hoped," he adds, "that the time is not far distant when attendance at a technical school shill mean attendance at a definite course of instruc- , tion. The advance referred to, while due in some measure to the provision made by the Government for free technical education, has beer, brought about by the continued efforts of those in charge of the schools, supplemented by the enlightened attitude, in many cases, of employers who have done, and are doing, a good deal to encourage attendance at classes. Valuable assistance in the same direction has also been rendered by many local bodiss and industrial and trade associations."

THE ARBITRATION ACT.

With reference to the Arbitration Act, the annual report of tne Builders and Contractors' Association of New Zealand, contains the following remarks:—"The Bill introduced to Parliament last year to amend the Arbitration Act has unexpectedly been dropped by the Government, and an entirely new set of amendments have been brought forward this session. Owing to a number of serious strikes by different classes of workers in various parts of the Dominion, in defiance of the Arbitration Act, it has been generally recognised that a drastic alteration in the law is necessary to make the Act equally enforceable against worker as against employer. Employers have, on the whole, loyally abided *by awards of the Court, but if the onesided working of the Act in allowing workers to .defy it while employers

are rigidly held to its observance is allowed to continue* must rise in a body and demand its repeal." <