TECHNICAL EDUCATION.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume VII, Issue 1907, 21 April 1885, Page 2

TECHNICAL EDUCATION.

In the course of a disQi|SS!f]n Ifljjcli recently took plape un the subject of Technical Education in Dunedin, Professor McGregor said the great tendenoy in modern times was to specialise all kinds of industry,, and it was an inevitable necessity that a workman must concentrate his attention to a very limited area. Tho question then was, how were they to secure anything like what was called technical education? The way seemed to be this: How much had they in common that they could not teach in commoji applicable to all these infinitely varied arts ? He' replied that there was nothing in common essept what they were taught by mathematics, chemistry, physios, and the other general sciences. All the rest was practical manipulation in the workshop. As Mr Farijuhar had said, things had now become so specialised that nothing more could be done. It seemed to him that the cry—especially in this colony—fortechniclial education was simply a cry for some easy way of learning which their forefathers did not possess. There was no such easy way of learning anything, Hqwgyep, ii( thjs colqny they iyef<s it} a pfifjition tft get technical iristruction tijat was not possessed elsewhere, because hgre trades were pot sq specialised. Thoy had the University, where all the olasses were night classes, for the purpose of meeting this very demand, and the people would not come to thorn. People said, " Oh, the work ia too hard;" but lie would say that any man who thinks to excel must work hard. Then they had the Caledonian Society's classes, but people would not tab the trouble (q go. That wa? oarcjinaj fault of qup population—thoy wanted to get things 100 easily. The Manufacturers' Association'should direct their attention to this as the central point: How shall we supplement from the prosont necessities of trade what used to be secured under the old apprentice systom ? That k possible no longer, owing to the way labour.is specialised. Machinery is doing vfhat used to be dona by skilled labqurera j and we must faco this fact; that the organisation of industry is becoming so complex that anyone who doeß not master scientific principles must become a hewer of wood and drawer of water, and his condition will be a wretched one.