8.—5

1900. NEW ZEALAND.

EDUCATION: MANUAL AND TECHNICAL INSTRUCTION. [In continuation of E.-5, 1899.]

Presented to both Houses of the General Assembly by Command of His Excellency.

EXTRACT FEOM TWENTY - THIRD ANNUAL REPORT OP THE MINISTER OF EDUCATION. Manual and Technical Instruction. The genera] remarks made in last year's report as to the importance and prospects of manual training in our schools, and of technical instruction for the youth of the colony, still hold good, and it is not necessary to repeat them here. It is not in the improvement of industrial processes alone that the general introduction of manual and technical training would produce good results, but in the gradual recasting of the whole educational system which it would involve— in the more complete adjustment of our intellectual and practical life to our actual environment which an enlightened scheme of this kind would certainly bring about. But the progress that can be recorded in New Zealand during 1899 is little, if any ; in some places the movement has gone forward a little, in others it has gone back—in fact, no substantial progress can be looked for until substantial provision has been made by the legislature for its encouragement. The new regulations for the examination of public schools give somewhat greater facilities for the introduction of hand-work into the course of primary school instruction ; but without special grants for this purpose it is not likely that many Education Boards will be likely to encourage its introduction into their schools. The table on page 2 shows the administration of the resources afforded by the Act of 1895, the capitation paid on account of classes, and the amounts of special grants in certain cases. No account is taken here of the important technical work done in connection with the Otago School of Mines, the Canterbury College Engineering School, and other institutions; nor of the manual instruction given in many of the primary schools and secondary schools, as no specific information in regard to them is in the possession of the department,

I—E. 5.