Wairarapa Daily Times. [Established 1874.] WEDNESDAY, APRIL 10, 1895. TECHNICAL EDUCATION.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume XVI, Issue 4998, 10 April 1895, Page 2

Wairarapa Daily Times. [Established 1874.] WEDNESDAY, APRIL 10, 1895. TECHNICAL EDUCATION.

Mr Danioll has tabled a notice of motion for the next meeting of the Masterton Town Lands Trust, in favor of assisting Technical Education. We do not anticipate that the Trustees will experience any great difficulty in acquiescing to his proposal, which simply affirms the principle that the funds of the Trust should be applied to training the hand as well as to padding the head. Tho next step which involves the practical application of tho principle, is the one which will demand the more careful consideration. Technical Education embraces a thousand and one studies, and if the resources of the Trustees are unequal to dealing with more than one or two out of the multitude, the selection of the fittest for local purposes, is no easy task, The Trustees have to decide as a preliminary, the amount they can spare as an annual grant iu such a direction, and this to begin with, -will be a debatable point. They cannot, in all probability, appropriate more than one or two hundred pounds per annum for Technical Education, aad it is evident that to do the greatest ijootl to tho greatest number, withsuchasuni, requires much deliberation, It has become the fashion now-a-days, in the expenditure of public money to consider the claims of both sexes, and at the outset if the Trustees are ' up to date 'they must bear in mind that girls as well as boys arecapablo of benefitting by technical instruction, and that in certain branches, especially in the culinary art, it would be possible to do good:work. We fear, howover, that for the present the lassies will be left in the cold, and that any encouragement offered by the Trustees will be restricted to boys. We do not know, as yet Mr Daniell's views, but as a practical man lie will probably, recognize that in i community like' thiß the use' of tools' is , the; most, essential.: art that.should be. taught, and a carpenter's shop

would probably be as desirable a technical school as any that • coiild 'be suggested, We have, however, long been of the opinion I that tlie New Zealander of the future ! nnifit earn his living to a very great ' extent by the scientific culture of the ' soil. We would like to sec boys trained to be producers, not necessarily of grain and live stock', but of fruits, flowers, and vegetables. Technical instruction in the art of cultivation and in the new developments of it, associated with the science of irrigation, is needed in the chief contre of a wide agricultural .district, Nature intends this to be a fruit-growing country, but the art of successful cultivation is all but unknown and sources of future wealth and prosperity are consequently neglected. Wo have never believed in New Zealand as other than a field for outdoor labour. The outlook now in Masterton for skilled artisans is a poor one, but there is scope for a thousand trained horticultural experts in this neighbourhood. What is being accomplished in places like • Mildura could be done heie if idle hands wore only trained and i directed to the great and healthy task of fruit production. The dim\ culty, however, lies in defining a practical scheme, for it would be unreasonable to expect the Town Lands Trust toendorso any indefinite project. The present is, however, a suitable opportunity for discus- , sing the various aspects of technical education and endeavouring to ascertain the direction it ought to take in this town.